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EVERY 

WOMAN'S 

FLOWER 

GARDEN 




AN INFORMAL MIXED BORDER 



EVERY WOMAN'S 
FLOWER GARDEN 

HOW TO MAKE AND KEEP IT 
BEAUTIFUL BY MARY HAMPDEN 
WITH FIVE COLOUR PLATES 
BY MARY S. REEVE AND 83 
DESIGNS BY THE AUTHOR 



NEW YORK 

DUFFIELD & COMPANY 

1915 






<Z -ZS7 



THE ANCHOR PRKSS, LTD., TIPTRKE, ESSEX, ENGLAND. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. WHY TO GARDEN - - " I 

II. HOW TO LAY OUT A GARDEN - 8 

III. HOW TO GARDEN COMFORTABLY - 21 

IV. PREPARING THE GROUND - 28 
V. THE CHARM OF THE MIXED BORDER - 36 

VI. SUCCESS WITH TURF - - - 45 

VII. ROSES AND ROSERIES - ■• "55 

VIII. ROSE PLANTING, FEEDING, AND PRUNING 73 

IX. BEDS ON THE LAWN - - "83 

X. SHRUBS AND SHRUBBERY-BUILDING - IOO 

XI. ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS - - 1 10 

XII. THE WALLS OF THE HOUSE - - 121 

XIII. BEAUTIFUL BORDERS - I32 

XIV. SEED SOWINGS, UNDER GLASS AND IN THE 

OPEN ----- 146 

XV. SCREENS AND ARBOURS - - 158 

XVI. BEAUTIFUL BEDDING OUT - - 170 

XVII. GLADES AND PERGOLAS - - 183 

XVIII. BULBS AND BULB BORDERS - - I93 

XIX. WHERE SUNSHINE IS ECLIPSED - 203 

XX. EVIL AND EXCELLENT EDGINGS - 213 

XXI. ROCKERIES AND THEIR DENIZENS - 225 

XXII. BEDS OF PERENNIALS AND PRETTY 

POOLS - 235 

XXIII. DAHLIAS AND CHRYSANTHEMUMS - 253 

XXIV. THE WINTER GARDEN - 262 



VI 



CONTENTS 



chaptp:r page 
XXV. VIOLETS, CARNATIONS, AND LILIES-OF- 

THE-VALLEY - - - - 275 
XXVI. THE WILDERNESS GARDEN - - 285 
XXVII. PANSIES AND PRIMULAS - - 296 
XXVIII. PRUNINGS, CLIPPINGS, AND PROPAGA- 
TION - 309 
XXIX. DISEASES, INSECT PESTS, AND PERILS - 318 
XXX. OUR FRONT GARDENS - 327 
XXXI. A SHEAF OF HINTS - 339 



COLOURED PLATES 

an informal mixed border - - Frontispiece 

TO FACE PAGE 

A PRETTY ARTIFICIAL GARDEN - - "14 

BULBOUS FLOWERS UNDER TREES - - 200 

A POOL WITH SHELVING BANKS - 246 

PERFUMED FLOWERS ROUND A SUMMER SHELTER 342 



LIST OF DESIGNS 

PAGE 

THE USUAL VILLA GARDEN - 9 

THE USUAL VILLA GARDEN IMPROVED - II 

AN ARTISTIC GARDEN PLAN - - "13 

A GEOMETRICAL GARDEN - - 15 

A GRACEFUL GARDEN PLAN - - IJ 

THE MIXED BORDER - - - "39 

A MIXED BORDER - - - "41 

A BEAUTIFUL ROSERY - - - - 6l 

A FORMAL ROSERY - - - 62 

A SQUARE ROSERY - - - - 64 

A ROUND ROSERY - - - -65 

FIVE-POINTED STAR BED - - 86 

LAWN-CORNER BED - - - - 86 

SIX-POINTED STAR BED - - - 86 

BANNER BED - - - - -36 



Vlll 



LIST OF DESIGNS 



THE SCROLL BED 

A LEAF-SHAPED BED 

THE TUDOR ROSE BED 

A FLOWER-SHAPED BED - 

A FANCY LEAF BED 

THE IVY-LEAF BED 

THE CORNFLOWER BED - 

THE TWO EGG FLOWER BED 

THE PETAL-SHAPED BED 

A USEFUL NARROW BORDER 

GROUPED BEDS IN FLOWER SHAPES 

INFORMAL BED GROUPS - 

A FORMAL PARTERRE 

A GROUP OF ROUND BEDS 

AN ELEGANT GROUP OF BEDS 

A USEFUL GROUP OF PLAIN BEDS 

A GROUP OF THREE BEDS 

A PAIR OF FLOWER BEDS 

A BED FOR A LAWN'S END 

A BED FOR FINISHING A LAWN - 

THE DIAMOND LAWN BORDERING 

THE SCROLL LAWN BORDERING - 

THE CONTINUOUS LAWN BORDER 

A SEMI-CIRCLE FOR FLOWERS 

BEDS TO REPEAT FOR A BORDER 

AN ORIGINAL LAWN GROUP 

A CLASSIC GROUP FOR A LAWN - 

COLOUR ARRANGING IN BORDERS 

COMBINED PERENNIALS - 

A BORDER IN SQUARES - 

AN EDGED BORDER 

A PATTERN BORDER 

THE VANDYKE BORDER - 



87 

88 
88 
88 
88 
88 
88 
90 
90 
90 

9i 
92 

92 
93 
93 
94 
95 

95 
96 

96 

96 

96 

97 

97 

97 
98 

98 

134 
135 
139 
139 
139 
i39 



LIST OF DESIGNS 

THE WAVED BORDER 

THE CASTELLATED BORDER 

THE PEAKED BORDER 

THE SCALLOPED BORDER 

AN EFFECTIVE BORDER - 

AN ELABORATE BORDER IN THE OPEN - 

A BORDER FOR OPEN GRASS OR GRAVEL 

BEDDING OUT IN AN OBLONG 

A STRIKING STAR DESIGN 

THE BUNCHES OF GRAPES DESIGN 

A FLOWER-SHAPED FILLING 

THE DIVIDED BLOSSOM DESIGN - 

A RIBBON BED - 

A DESIGN WITH DOT PLANTS 

A PATTERN OF DOT PLANTS 

A SIMPLE LONG BED FILLING 

BEAUTIFUL BULB BORDERS 

A ROUND BED OF PERENNIALS - 

A BORDERED BED OF PERMANENT PLANTS 

A PATTERN BED OF PERENNIALS 

A BED FOR FLAXES 

A POINTED OVAL 

THE THREE-COLOUR BED 

A VERY FORMAL DESIGN 

A DESIGN FOR LARGE BEDS 

AN INFORMAL WATER GARDEN - 

A POOL IN A BORDER 

THE HEDGE-SHELTERED GARDEN 

A MAZE GARDEN 

THE USUAL FRONT GARDEN 

THE FRONT GARDEN OF GRASS - 

THE TURF-EDGED FRONT GARDEN 

AN UNCOMMON FRONT GARDEN - 



IX 

PAGE 
142 

142 

142 

142 

143 
143 
143 
173 
174 
175 
176 

177 
178 
179 
179 
180 
194 

237 
238 
240 
241 
242 
243 
243 

244 
248 

250 

265 

266 

331 
332 

334 
337 



EVERY 
WOMAN'S 
FLOWER 
GARDEN 



EVERY WOMAN'S 
FLOWER GARDEN 



A 



CHAPTER I 

WHY TO GARDEN 
" A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread." — Shelley 

cc \ FTER making the first flower," says an 
Oriental legend, " God Himself hesitated, 
in doubt if He could surpass it." All 
great artists desire to rival their own early works. A 
belief arose that this primary blossom was the violet, 
which Eve obtained permission to transplant at once 
to sweeten and adorn the outer barren earth that was 
the place of banishment. To-day we spread flowers 
over the land with similar intent : our homes rise out 
of bowers, our windows open to the morning between 
roses, and we lean from them at night above fragrant 
lavender, myrtle, southernwood, jasmine, honeysuckle, 
nicotianas, stocks, lilac, magnolias, mignonette, and 
verbenas. Or if we do not we have missed precious 
opportunities. 

Why should we garden ? The answer is in the heart 
of each woman. While some individuals silence the 
thought, the majority admit that the manufacture of 
something of worth is the purpose of our being. 

A space separates one dwelling from another, except 

B 



2 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

in terraces of crowded towns ; that vacancy, be it 
large or small, is a fact that must be used. Asphalte 
alone will furnish it, but can one imagine a lovable 
woman devoting to unrelieved cement the ground 
that might feed the life of tree, or shrub, or plant ? 
Then garden forming is a distinct charity. The rooms 
we inhabit are for self and a favoured few ; the garden 
is also for strangers, those neighbours who observe it 
from their homes and breathe air purified and sweetened 
by its presence, those passers-by whose eyes rest 
gratefully on waving branches, frolics of light and shade, 
and satisfying colour combinations. 

A vast amount of nonsense — disheartening nonsense 
too — is talked about small gardens by critics who forget 
that a solitary rose bush is as fair as an acre of exhibi- 
tion varieties, fairer, in the sense that so many more 
of its perfections can be studied at a glance. There 
was a craze for privacy a few years ago, from the evil 
effects of which we are only beginning to recover ; 
the pleasure-grounds that were not hidden away were 
scorned, ambitious floriculturists sought for cottages 
with " secluded gardens," writers of the Press sneered 
at tablecloth lawns, pocket-handkerchief flower-beds, 
and ribbon-wide borders. Something of a democratic 
spirit has stirred since then, not persuading us that 
shut-away gardens of loneliness are not delicious 
luxuries for the few, but making us ashamed to despise 
our roadside chances, teaching us patience and zeal in 
the painting of flower and leaf masterpieces on limited 
canvases of ground. Years ago, too, women — always de- 
fined as ladies — plied outdoor tools in semi-shame, afraid 
of being considered vulgar or unf eminine ; now the spade 
is recognised as an honourable implement in female hands. 



WHY TO GARDEN 3 

Character is extraordinarily betrayed by the home- 
made, or home-tended garden. It may be pretentious, 
blatant, severe, crude, deplorable, or merely ugly ; 
the inconsistency of weedy patches among costly 
splendours, the monotonous identity of line after line 
of bloom, the bizarre blaze of incongruous hues, the 
melancholy lack of brilliance, will infallibly write 
personalities of reproach upon the soil. But if it is 
elegant, gracious, cheerful, tender, peaceful, quaint, 
or exquisitely neat ? Then, indeed, the gardener will 
own a living testimonial. 

The following pages are offered as a simple encourage- 
ment to women who wish to maintain their own gardens; 
and let it be remembered all through that the choice 
among hints is as real an originality as the inventing 
of recipes for floral and foliage features. If paid 
labourers do some of the actual toil the honour will still 
belong to the selecting mind in command. All garden- 
ing, however, is well within the capacity of a woman of 
average health and strength, and some of the best 
home Edens of England are those managed wholly 
by their Eves. 

One of the essentials for contentment in the task is 
the belief that the poetic is closely interwoven with the 
practical. Naturally, suns, frosts, and storms prepare 
the earth, animal lives and vegetable decay slowly 
nourish it ; the clod is wind-strewn with grass seeds 
until it becomes a sod, sods receive, from bird, beast, 
and breeze, the larger seeds from which spring forests, 
thickets, and wildernesses of flower. Artificially, the 
ground has first to be pulverised by the fork, enriched, 
either by animal manure or its chemical constituents ; 
the seeds are chosen, trees, shrubs, and plants are set 



4 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

separate that they may flourish faster than by the fights 
that precede the unaided survival of the fittest ; so, 
where all was arid and unlovely, grows the harmonious, 
soul-uplifting glory of a garden. But, whether Nature 
obeys the Creator, or human hands, acting by inspired 
science, try to improve on Nature, the processes, from 
first to last, from base to summit, are honourable and 
romantic. 

The woman who thinks that digging manure into 
a plot of land is undignified had better — not refrain 
from the healthy exercise, but — learn to blush for her 
opinion. To quote an old author, " Buried dung is 
cause of the pulp of the fruit, the juice of the leaf, the 
tint of the petal. So in Man hidden goodness is never 
waste ; it gives sympathy to the tone, honesty to the 
mien, and noble words to the tongue." 

We owe as much to the unnamed genius who dis- 
covered that cattle feed the meadows over which they 
roam, as to the modern scientist, busy with phial 
and crucible in his laboratory, extracting and analysing 
nitrates and phosphates and teaching us their properties. 

" To aim at the mountain is not always to hit a hill." 
Common sense in intention must draw the plan. 
Sisyphus, propelling his stone up the steeps, from which 
it could but roll back with increased speed, was scarcely 
worse employed than the gardener attempting to make 
a picturesque wilderness in a back-yard ; yet no piece 
of ground is too public to be turned into a pretty 
artificial garden. Adaptability to environment is as 
needful for plant masses as for persons. 

Of course planning a new garden affords fuller scope 
for intelligence than the remodelling of an old one ; 
there are such important decisions to be made as to the 



WHY TO GARDEN 5 

direction of the paths, the shapes of lawns, the positions 
for screens and seats, the utilisation of the kindest 
aspects, the treatment of ugly corners, for all those 
arrangements of form, height, and colour that win 
renown. Yet, by the removal of unsatisfactory 
features, the curving of walks and rounding off of 
grass plots, the replacing of oft-repeated shrubs and 
plants by rarer species, the ill-made garden can be 
quickly redeemed from insignificance and failure. A 
single chapter must be devoted to the subject of plan- 
ning new ground ; the others will suggest gardening 
achievements that may as easily be introduced in the 
places formerly occupied by errors. 

Who has not sadly watched florists' men laying out 
gardens to freshly-built houses ? A laburnum, prim 
hawthorn, and acacia, set in a row by the front railing, 
plain laurels in a line against the tradesmen's path, 
a grassy expanse unadorned by beds though of no use 
for games, the side borders dotted over with Portugal 
laurel, barberries, a golden privet, and perhaps one 
rhododendron, leaving shaded, objectless gaps between. 
Close to the house wall — maybe a south aspect — a 
priceless length of soil is probably planted with green 
and variegated euonymuses that would thrive equally 
in the open, or with a due north exposure. If the 
season is winter the edges of the spoilt borders are sure 
to be filled with shrivelled wallflowers ; if it is summer, 
with the poorest geraniums, calceolarias, and asters. 
Nine-tenths of the gardens along suburban roads so 
closely resemble each other that the chance preponder- 
ance of one of the flowers, or shrubs, is thought to 
constitute a marked novelty — gardens that might, just 
as economically, display the scarce-known glories of 



6 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

the veldt, blaze with the vivid blossoms that have been 
introduced from South and West America, blush with 
roses, and shimmer with the silver of lilies. 

There are countless striking ways of congregating 
trees, shrubs, and plants that English life will suit. 
Making a permanent copse of the wondrous blue spikes 
of the delphinium will be actually cheaper than setting 
out annually serried ranks of " Henry Jacoby " and 
squadrons of white stocks over the same space ; a fiery 
hedge of " red-hot pokers," faced by copper, orange, 
and amber day-lilies, edged by dwarf chrysanthemums 
of similar hues, will give more pleasure through the 
months than can be gleaned from tangles of weedy, 
dull-coloured tobacco plants flopping behind common 
fuchias. 

The explanation of much of the waste seen is that 
gardening has only become popular of late years. 
Hobbyists loved it before ; some of our ancestresses 
paid genuine homage to Flora, but the majority of 
women were willing to leave flower culture to hired 
men ; and directly a semi-educated official is set to 
work in the same rut year in, year out, he is apt to lose 
any vestige of interest that he may originally have 
possessed in his trade. Enthusiasm alone creates the 
remarkable. How can a jobbing gardener, or a regu- 
larly employed one, be enthusiastic when he is given 
the same kinds of seeds to sow in March, the same species 
of plants to bed out each May and June ? 

Woman's province is daily expanding further, but 
who will deny that it begins with home ? By under- 
taking charge of the gardens the wife or daughter can 
reduce expenditure, gain continual scope for the use 
of many talents, and accomplish the triumph of giving 



WHY TO GARDEN y 

a lovely frame to domesticity. Spirits are as brightened 
by beauty of environment as by the sunshine that goes 
and comes ; colour has as real value spread over borders 
and beds as in garments that are daily worn ; good 
cultivation of soil under the windows, by curing damp 
and preventing vapours, makes for the health of the 
room occupants. 

Arrangement of any floral garden is a matter for the 
exercise of daintiest fancy rather than of rule, but 
convenience has to be catered for as well as art : aims 
may be as diversified as the millions of flowers that have 
been introduced into cultivation; still, certain canons 
of good taste have to be faithfully observed. Nothing 
great is of rapid achievement, it must be remembered, 
and " to make a garden/' wrote a Persian poet, " is 
to paint a living picture with the pigments of the 
Almighty/' 

Gardening Proverb. — " Burnt weeds nourish roses, 
and virtues spring from repented vices." 



CHAPTER II 

HOW TO LAY OUT A GARDEN 

" Three-fourths of our work is done within us. The fundamental 
condition of every effective act is that we get a firm grasp on its 
ideal aspects, and prepare to perform it with a full faith." — Charles 
Wagner. 

PROBABLY six out of every seven plots of Mother 
Earth intended to be gardens behind houses 
are of oblong shape ; this makes the giving 
of plans for garden designs a really practical service ; and 
even if a plot runs all to corner eventually, or is cut into 
by a stable, shelved off by some more lordly pleasaunce 
next door, or becomes a narrower strip ere it finishes, 
the main patterns offered here can still be adapted. 
Supposing the oblong runs the contrary way, stretches 
out to breadth, instead of length, behind the dwelling ? 
Then the owner may think herself lucky, and contrive 
to adapt a little more. An examination of country 
villa residences, of all sizes, will support the contention 
that the oblong strip is the rule. 

Now builders always love straight lines, though 
modern tastes oblige them to make rooms and entrance 
doors at odd angles ; so, when the ground of a new 
garden has been laid out at all it is almost sure to be 
ugly. Fig. i shows a favourite design that is wholly 
evil. The most velvet lawn looks stark, instead of 
gracious, when it runs parallel with a tiled path of red 



House 



GARDEN 



DOOR 



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PATH 



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Fig. i. The Usual Villa Garden. 



io EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

and grey squares ; the best cultivated flower border 
is depressing if it follows the whole length of the side 
path at the same monotonous narrowness ; two lawn 
beds set as a pair trouble the eye of the artist, who feels 
that symmetry must be fully represented if it is to be 
tolerable, that unless vision can be satiated with form- 
ality it cries out for change. The square lawn would 
have been bearable if a round bed had ornamented 
each corner, better still if the four had surrounded a 
larger centre round. There is only one consoling fact 
about this unattractive specimen of laying-out, and 
that is the absence of a laurel hedge, or bank, crossing 
it ; the path is stiff, but at least it does not exclude 
sight of half the land from the house windows. Some 
hiding of distances is to be commended, the garden 
without mystery is as faulty as a landscape without 
tree or hill, but it is foolish to so plant that the ground 
appears less than its real size. 

For the comfort of those who possess gardens planned 
as the design on Fig. i, the method for improving 
matters, without radically destroying the outlines, is 
shown by Fig. 2. 

The two round beds, the two oblong ones, are on the 
lawn still, but one of the former has been enlarged, the 
other given up to a fir tree, a stately young conifer, that 
spreads fan-like foliage over the edges to the turf. 
In the latter beds hedges of briar roses tone down the 
hard shapes, and a vista view is created by the setting 
up of a rustic arch spanning the grass. A neat, formal 
rosery has been made beyond. It is cheaper to level 
a plot and sow grass seed, then cut out beds, than to 
gravel a number of new paths, otherwise this second 
half of our garden could have been turned into a 



HOUSE 



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GARDEN 



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TILED PATH 



LAW N 



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Fig. 2. The Usual Villa Garden Improved. 



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12 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

species of cultivated wilderness, with walks meandering 
among curving border-beds of handsome perennials, 
roses, or the beloved sweet pea. As it is designed now, 
the very middle should display a sundial, or pillar 
climber, and the rounds by the corner beds might 
consist of standard roses. 

By planting the long borders boldly most of their 
monotony may be cured ; the mass of gold-leaved 
shrubs, group of lilies, cluster of delphiniums, or 
perennial larkspurs, the corner copse of mock orange 
shrubs, leave sheltered spaces that might be happy 
homes perpetually for carnations, pansies, and hybrid 
pyrethrums, be sown with the popular annuals, or 
used to bed out in. On the opposite side of the garden 
the principal splendour will proceed from the double 
line of majestic hollyhocks of all colours, and the next 
important show will be yielded by the corner collection 
of herbaceous phloxes — rose, carmine, blue-lavender, 
cream, blush, and purple — with mixed chrysanthe- 
mums near to repeat the hues in October and November. 
By a simple use of shrubby veronicas at the lawn edge, 
a tuft of pampas grass, a bed of begonias, to follow 
hyacinths, all the severe look of the lawn has been 
remedied. 

When the same sized garden can be laid out entirely, 
what a choice of styles can be considered ! Personal 
predilection must come to the rescue, or the fancy of a 
relative be given precedence, lest the opportunities 
oppress the mind and cause the vacillation of purpose 
so plainly written in some pleasure-grounds — for a 
pinch of formality, a great deal of wildness, a dash of 
rockery, a flavouring of the tropical, a wealth of water, 
a soupgon of the vineyard, with old English clipped 



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Fig. 3. An Artistic Garden Plan. 



14 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

shrubs, modern exhibition roses, Dutch bulb bedding, 
and an arch or two, will never combine in a satisfying 
garden recipe. 

We have seen how the builder's design can be im- 
proved ; the three other illustrations demonstrate the 
design of curved lines, of angles, and of nature, respec- 
tively. Yes, the pattern of the design on Fig. 3 
shows just how paths get carelessly trodden between 
bushes and little plains. 

The flowers are the cultured ones, the shrubs also, 
but the massing of them is, it may be said, uncivilised. 
Persons who like tidy rows of tall flowers, and geo- 
metrical arrangements of dwarf growers, must not 
adopt this design of curves, in which not one bed or 
border is of any recognised shape. To many blossom 
and foliage lovers, however, devotees of unspoilt 
country, yearners after the unsophisticated, abhorrers 
of the conventional, the knowledge will be welcome 
that the villa strip of soil can be so modelled. Even 
the most shocked critic will have to admit that com- 
parison of four of these plans proves how much larger 
a garden looks when it is quite irregularly mapped 
out. 

Because the design on Fig. 4 is utterly antagonistic 
to the whole idea of that of Fig. 3, it is not necessarily 
inartistic, or in any degree false. Within sight of 
bricks and mortar it is impossible to delude oneself 
into the belief that Nature reigns supreme ; the signs 
of human handiwork in the cutting of beds and borders, 
or the prim setting of plants, is, therefore, so thor- 
oughly in harmony as to be art itself. To rave against 
pattern in the small garden's paths, and matching lines 
in its lawn shapes, is mistaken sestheticism. 





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Fig. 4. A Geometrical Garden, 



16 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

This plan, well carried out, would make a delight- 
fully quaint garden on a miniature scale : for a large 
piece of ground the number of paths would have to be 
increased at the end, to enable it to be easily traversed. 
Explanation is scarcely needed ; suffice it to suggest 
that the herbaceous plants are backed by evergreen and 
flowering shrubs here and there, that the rosery beds 
are edged by pinks and violas, and that a seat should 
be placed where the paths ultimately meet. It is bad 
style for walks to conduct footsteps to a wall or fence : 
some pretty feature, or restful bench, should reward 
the visitor who has traversed all the gravel. Any 
gardener anxious to introduce more originality into 
this design could make the lawn space of gravel, cut 
the rose beds in this, and then form all the paths of 
turf, arching them over where they meet. The space 
given up to flowering shrubs and annuals might be of 
gravel too, with beds, to be in sympathy with the dis- 
tinctive character. 

Lawn, rosery, seat, herbaceous borders, and paths 
combine also to create the garden shown on Fig. 5. 
This is a most elegant style of laying-out, for not an 
angle interferes with the soft rounding of edges. There 
is not much to say about it as it exists, drawn for the 
small villa pleasaunce, but let us think for a minute 
of its possibilities as but a portion of some stately 
garden. The lawn might be a lake, with an island 
instead of a rose bed ; the broad path by the margin 
could be covered by a tall pergola of slender white 
painted iron supports ; stone urns of classic shape, at 
intervals in the side arches, could contain yuccas, aloes, 
palms, and myrtles ; steps might lead down to the 
water's edge, and the plot beyond, planted with glossy 



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Fig. 5. A Graceful Garden Plan. 



18 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

evergreens, threaded among by paths, and adorned by a 
marble statue or two of nymph or faun, would serve to 
contrast darkly with the brilliance of climbing roses and 
clematises, and the shimmer of the lake lying beneath 
sun or moonlight. 

Fancy the design again as a huge oval bed of roses, 
with group of pillar climbers for centre height, and 
border of lilies, carnations, and pansies, the wide 
gravel walk spanned by rustic arches at regular inter- 
vals, the neighbouring plot given up to a mass of all 
the rarest beauties among bedding plants — eucalyptuses, 
wigandias, palms, plumbago, salvias, brugmansias, 
lilium auratum, tree geraniums, cannas, heliotropes, and 
gazanias. May it not be claimed that this unelaborate 
outline might be the ground-plan of unforgettable 
glories ? 

Long, long ago a writer described the intricate 
" labyrinths of cypress, noble hedges of pomegranates, 
fountains, fish-ponds, and aviary " of the noted gardens 
of the Tuileries, " which seemed a paradise." We may 
not compete with triumphs of such magnitude, nor do 
we all sigh after " artificial echoes," grottos inhabited 
by tame owls, quaint figures of tritons blowing horns, 
or sundials which, as at Chats worth, discharge cannon. 
We can take pains to mingle colours exquisitely in beds 
of pleasing contours, screen away uglinesses, direct the 
feet to beauties, offer shade and repose to our garden 
guests, and make certain that blossoms and berries 
incessantly show cheering tints before the windows. 

It is legitimate art to adapt the continental styles of 
gardening to the land of a nation where all nationalities 
meet ; it is not vulgar to use gaudy flowers as well 
as delicately tinted ones ; there is scope for all 



HOW TO LAY OUT A GARDEN 19 

fancies, in fact, provided they are kept within suitable 
bounds. 

The time that a new garden takes to become shady 
and luxuriant can be lessened by skilled planting, and 
certain temporary features may be enjoyed while 
permanent ones are progressing. If planting the 
whole ground at the outset is too laborious, or costly, 
stretches of soil, ultimately to become rockeries or 
roseries, may be merely forked and raked, then sown 
with some of the adaptable annuals and perennials 
that need not be manure-fed. Yes, the list of these 
might be extended, but choice can safely be made 
among the following species, seeds of which are not 
expensive. 

PERENNIALS TO SOW ON POOR GROUND 

Snapdragons. 

Anthemis Kelwayi, a golden marguerite. 2 feet. 

Cupidone, or Catananche bicolor. White daisy shaped 
everlasting flower, with blue centre. 2 feet, 

Cheiranthus Allioni. A small kind of orange wall- 
flower. 1 foot. 

Foxglove. Rosy purple or white, for sun or shade. 
(Biennial, but resows itself.) 

Gold Dust. Alyssum saxatile. 9 inches. 

Columbines. Aquilegia hybrida, double and single. 

Honesty, purple or white. (Biennial, but re-sows 
itself.) 

The Yellow Welsh Poppy. Meconopsis Cambrica. 
1 J feet. (Biennial, but re-sows itself.) 

Iceland Poppies. 

Wallflowers. 



20 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

ANNUALS TO SOW ON POOR GROUND 

Rose of Heaven, or Agrostemma coeli rosea. Pink. 

9 inches. 
Blue Clover. Asperula azurea. Beloved by bees. 8 

inches. 
Pot Marigolds. Calendulas, orange or yellow, double 

and single. 18 inches. 
Calliopsis. Tall or dwarf, gold and crimson. 
Candytuft. The common single, in white, carmine, 

lilac, or pink, i foot. 
Clarkias. The singles are suited to poor ground. 
Collin's Toad Flax. White or mixed. 9 inches. 
Erysimum Perofskianum. Brilliant orange. 1 foot. 
Eschscholtzias. All kinds and colours. 
Mist Flower, or chalk plant. Gypsophila elegans, 

pinky lilac or white, ij feet. 
Miniature Sunflowers. These will flourish, but be 

smaller than on rich ground. 
Leptosiphons. Miniature plants covered by blossoms 

of countless hues. 6 inches. 
Nasturtiums. Climbers for trailing, or else Tom 

Thumb varieties. 
Shirley Poppies. 
Mignonette. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Wide views are healthy, but 
blank views are not views at all." 



CHAPTER III 

HOW TO GARDEN COMFORTABLY 

" Since gardening is a science whose special object is a constant 
struggle with wild and undisciplined nature, a few slight difficulties 
in the gardener's way — and they have not unfrequently been more 
than slight — have served as a stimulus to increase his exertions." 
— Eugene Sebastian Delamer. 

THE gardener must have an outfit, but it need 
not be a large or costly one ; a few first- 
quality tools are more useful than a store 
of miscellaneous poor ones. The woman gardener 
must steel her heart against the pretty sets of tools 
" for ladies," all blue-shining as to steel, all smoothly 
polished and gaily painted as to handles ; there may be 
exceptions to this rule, but these are usually toys that 
should be avoided, when real hard work is in prospect. 
First in order of necessity stands the four-pronged 
fork, the average price of which is three shillings. It 
is possible to get along well without a spade, but not 
without a fork to lift the soil and break it into frag- 
ments, to raise shrubs and plants by delving deep 
beneath them. Indeed the spade is of doubtful 
service on the heaviest, sticky land, which it cuts in 
slices, like cake, and leaves to harden with sharp edges. 
It may be more irksome to shovel away earth with 
a hand-trowel, after the fork has lifted it, but even this 
method is preferable. Gravel, or sandy soil, can, of 



22 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

course, be quickly raised and tossed elsewhere by spade- 
work. 

The trowel should be of all bright steel, not " half 
bright and half blued," as the catalogues phrase it. 
There are plenty of the other sort sold at sixpence- 
halfpenny apiece, which part with their handles as 
soon as a stiff bit of digging-out of a plant is attempted ; 
eighteenpence is a more suitable price for a professional 
weapon of the " all-bright " type. 

Again, the Dutch hoe is excellent for weeding care- 
fully among plants, and the draw hoe is splendid for 
clearing walks of moss and weeds, but it is not difficult 
to do without them if the quite indispensable spud is 
bought. Yet there seem to be many floriculturists 
who have but a dim conception of the nature of this 
precious tool. It will weed, rake, dig up, and pulverise 
the surface of beds, and, at a pinch, can be used to make 
holes for bulbs and trim the edges of the lawn. Con- 
sidering its smallness it is an expensive tool, for one 
described as " solid steel, gent's walking-stick handle," 
costs three shillings at the lowest. However, at some 
country ironmongers', spud heads are sold which are 
mounted to order, and this is at once cheaper and better, 
as the spud is twice as convenient on a handle as long 
as that of the rake, which should be the next invest- 
ment. This ought to be light, only eight or nine- 
toothed, or else the amateur gardener will find herself 
doing damage when she employs it to clear fallen leaves 
from among flowers. 

If there is much grass a lawn-mower cannot be dis- 
pensed with ; its size must depend upon the surface 
to be kept tidy, but the purchaser should bear in mind 
that it is easier to go swiftly more times across a lawn, 



HOW TO GARDEN COMFORTABLY 23 

than wearily a few times, and a wide machine, in addi- 
tion to weight, hampers the wielder when sharp corners 
have to be turned, or miniature curves followed. A 
box to collect the grass adds enormously to the cum- 
bersomeness of a mower and is not needed, for the 
birch broom, or stiff-bristled old house broom, quickly 
sweeps the unmade hay into heaps that can be caught 
up between two lengths of board, and collected in a 
basket. In spring, when the grass is not long, and 
again in summer's heat, when a mulch protects the 
sheared turf, the cut stuff should be left lying. A bas- 
ket having been mentioned the reader would do well 
to note that emptied egg baskets, of hamper shape, can 
be bought for about twopence each at grocers', and 
cannot be rivalled for lightness and capacity. A small 
hand fork is sure to be required. 

The lawn owner may invest in long-handled edging- 
shears, or grass plot knives, if she pleases ; a pair of 
steel grass shears for use kneeling will, however, 
maintain the margins in quite as trim a condition and 
serve as clippers for hedges, or for narrow turf strips 
that the machine cannot traverse, also for the cutting 
down of dwarf plants, such as sweet alyssum, that a 
second flowering may be encouraged. 

Then every hired gardener expects a reel and line, but 
the ingenious economist may make a pointed stick, a ball 
of stout string, and a large meat skewer answer the 
same purpose, just as a home-sharpened wooden stake 
may do duty for a dibbler. Useful little modern tools 
are short-handled daisy-grubbers, of which there are 
many patterns. Watering-cans are essential with a 
coarse and a fine rose. Secateurs, flower-gathering 
scissors, pruning and rose-budding knives, water 



24 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

barrows, hose reels and hose coils, leaf-sponges, dande- 
lion extractors, pneumatic spray producers, are all 
refinements that help, but need not be sighed for. 
An aphis brush, to clear green fly from the roses, a 
strong, simple syringe, a ball of tarred string, a twist 
of raffia tying material, and a wire sieve, with some old 
fish-netting to protect seeds, and a supply of labels, 
will not cost more than a few shillings all together. 
W T orn dinner-knives, that have become dwarfed as to 
the blades, will both prune trees and loosen the surface- 
soil among closely set bedding plants. 

The woman who means to work in all weathers and 
states of the ground must equip herself sensibly in 
other ways than the purchase of tools. For the worst 
muddy days she can use a kneeling, or standing, 
board. This is simply an oblong piece of deal — a 
strong box lid will do — that can be laid flat on the 
lawn or gravel, or else a strip of wood with a four-inch 
square block nailed on at each end for feet. The latter 
is more convenient on beds or borders. Those square 
feet will sink into the wet earth, but the ugly holes 
they leave can soon be scratched tidy by the knife 
or trowel. Kneeling mats, of straw, linoleum, or 
plaited rope, are often used on the grass at the bed- 
filling seasons. However, the fewer such protectors 
the gardener has, the better. 

Dress is the chief means of safeguarding the outdoor 
worker from chills, except for a pair of knee-caps, or 
pads, that can scarcely be called garments. These 
should be made at home, of American cloth and vege- 
table down or " flock," as pincushions are manufactured, 
but not stuffed as hard, and can be fastened on by 
bands of broad elastic passing under the knees. It is 



HOW TO GARDEN COMFORTABLY 25 

far from pleasant to kneel suddenly upon a sharp 
stone, or gritty gravel path, so on fine dry days, as 
well as bad damp ones, the knee-caps should be donned. 

At some horticultural training colleges the costume 
consists of very short skirts over very visible knickers, 
all of blue serge or holland. The home woman 
seldom wishes to " wear the breeches " in quite this 
fashion, and will find herself more comfortably, as 
well as becomingly, clothed, if she has a skirt of ankle 
length, and knickers beneath, all of waterproof material. 
There is nothing like black mackintosh for resisting 
mud, as a sponging down removes every vestige, and 
the stuff quickly dries if hung up in a warm kitchen, 
not close by the fire. 

If she prefers, the lady gardener may have her skirt 
of serge with only a really deep hem, both inside and 
out, of mackintosh, but it is wiser to arrange a front 
panel lining too, so that the knees are still further 
guarded when she kneels on soaking lawns or oozy 
borders. 

A thin jersey for summer, a couple of thick jerseys, 
one worn over the other, for winter, will give a perfect 
covering for chest, hips, shoulders, and arms, and 
movements are less tiring when there are no thick 
cloth seams to impede them. On the head may be a 
cap to match the jersey, if work is being done in the 
open, but woe betide the rose-pruner who tries to stoop 
amid prickly boughs with a crochet, knitted, or tweed 
hair-covering ! Thorns will entangle themselves a 
dozen times in ten minutes, and ere long the cap will 
be dragged to the ground, or hung up on some released, 
lofty branch of " standard " or " pillar." A mackin- 
tosh cap will not prove troublesome, and will keep the 



26 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

head dry, while on sunny days an untrimmed hat of 
glazed and stiffened straw is the ideal wear. 

Gloves are a source of annoyance. Probably the 
satisfactory garden glove is still to be invented. 
Leather gauntlets are too clumsy for any but the rough- 
est jobs, kid is useless after it has been wetted, washing 
doeskin wears out too rapidly, fabric gloves all let the 
dirt through more or less. Suede finish cashmere will 
do well for handling the lawn mower, rake, spud, fork, 
or spade, silk can be donned when delicate seedlings 
have to be pricked out, but the woman who wears any 
gloves for seed sowing must be counted the most 
amateurish of floriculturists. For seeds stick, and 
are easily lost ; the fingers need to test how nicely 
the potting compost will drop from between them, 
in friable condition, and succulent little weeds, scarcely 
visible to the eye, are discoverable in the soil by touch — 
wicked small enemies, just beginning their career, 
certain to choke some of the first germinating sprouts 
if not banished. On the whole the action of Mother 
Earth upon the skin is not a quarter as harmful as is 
usually feared ; a roughness comes in the palms of 
hands that have taken constant grips of soil all day, 
but vaseline rubbed in at night removes that trouble. 

Another kind of hand-covering, suited to wettest 
work, is the housemaids' wash-leather glove ; to render 
these less clumsy the fingers should all be stitched 
round again, to reduce their size, then the old stitched 
edges be cut off, and the gloves turned inside out for 
wear. If armlets of mackintosh are made, sewn to the 
glove tops, and finished off at their own cuffs by elastic, 
there will be no inconvenience from water running down 
the~sleeves. 



HOW TO GARDEN COMFORTABLY 27 

Foot-wear has not yet been considered. It is 
astonishing how gardening operations are aided by the 
feet being at ease, and all manner of boots and shoes 
prove useful at times. Canvas tennis shoes, with their 
thick corrugated indiarubber soles, are very safe 
with spats, if a mackintosh lining is tacked in. Any 
old leather boots can be soled with wood, and these 
are softer in wear than are the stout boots, already 
wooden-bottomed, that can be bought. Dry weather 
tasks find the woman gardener sufficiently shod in 
elastic-side cashmere, which will enable her to tread 
daintily and lightly on the flower-beds. Goloshes will 
be required only for seasons of actually flooded lawns 
and walks. 

The final suggestion may be permitted that, just as 
the scientific workman respects his implements, so 
should the gardener do honour to her tools, and as the 
good official is proud of his livery, so should she take 
credit to herself for the tidy fitness of her clothes. 
Slovenly toilers, conscious of torn skirts, down-at-heel, 
bulging boots, battered hats, mud-encrusted sleeves, 
and holey gloves, are likely to blush for their occupation 
if caught at it. Their tools, too, are sure to have been 
put away dirty, if not left sticking in the ground or 
prone upon some path ; their seedling-boxes will be 
rotting, flower-pots cracked, compost ingredients in a 
jumble, bulbs mildewed, seeds mixed, sticks broken. 

The secret of being comfortable when gardening 
resolves itself, at last, into loving the hobby. All 
lesser aids fall naturally into place then. 

Gardening Proverb. — " One smile in a storm is worth 
three in sunshine/' 



CHAPTER IV 



PREPARING THE GROUND 



" It cannot be too frequently repeated, the remedies provided by 
Nature always surmount the obstacles she has opposed, and her 
compensations ever exceed her gifts." — Bernardin de Saint 
Pierre. 

IN a woodland, primroses, bluebells, and mosses 
spring to life, because the rich, moist, shaded 
soil, full of decayed and decaying vegetable 
matter, is the nourishment they desire ; on mountains 
flourish alpine flowers that must have gritty ground and 
no stagnant moisture ; in cornfields up leap poppies 
of fragile stems, sure of protection from winds that 
would level them if they raised themselves in an equally 
root-feeding, open meadow. But when the ignorant 
or careless gardener gets to work plants are expected 
to adapt themselves impossibly to soil and situations 
for which they were never destined. To their honour 
be it said that they do mostly struggle bravely to sur- 
vive, but the genuine flower-lover grieves over their 
efforts. 

It has been scientifically stated that the food of all 
plants is nearly the same, but differing in the quantities 
of the ingredients : all must have air, water, and a 
substance named humus, which is composed of char- 
coal (or carbon) and hydrogen gas. This may appear 
terribly technical, but it can be resolved into a simpler 



PREPARING THE GROUND 29 

definition. Each plant must be prevented from pining 
for lack of either air, moisture, or nourishment, and 
the last is no use until there is also some light — not 
necessarily sunshine — and sufficient warmth both above 
and below the earth. 

Any soil, of adequate depth, can be made fit to sus- 
tain plants : if it is stony gravel it must have loads 
of old leaf mould and of sticky cow manure dug into 
it ; if it is rank clay it needs grit, with lime, and horse 
manure ; if it is very chalky, an admixture of peat 
mould, any animal manures, leaf mould, and some soot. 
Luckily garden ground is seldom of pure clay, or mere 
chalk ; generally it is a loam with either an excess of 
sand or of clay ; in the latter case the soil is known as 
" marly." 

A pale soil is probably poor, a dark one rich ; in 
towns, however, black-looking beds and borders too 
often denote a sour state that has resulted slowly 
through years of neglect, the vegetable matter deposited 
by shrubs and trees — many evergreen and semi- 
poisonous — and the smuts dropped from chimneys, — 
having gone into a damp decay. Land of this sort 
needs forking up and leaving loose for some weeks, 
then several more turnings preceded by scatterings 
of builders' lime, with ten-day intervals between the 
operations. Finally some dryish and strawy horse- 
manure must be dug in, and for the future the hoe, 
fork, or spud must prick over the top three or four 
inches, at least once a month to keep it from be- 
coming sodden again. 

The inexperienced eye finds difficulty in deciding 
what soil wants. If, when a border is turned up at 
some place by fork or spade, to the depth of a foot, the 



30 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

sides of the cavity are clean-cut and damply solid, 
then it needs sand and the other lightening substances, 
leaf mould and horse manure : if, on the contrary, 
the sides of the hole are crumbly, to such a degree that 
a spadeful falls down as soon as thrown up, then it 
requires stiffening, which is usually done with cow- 
manure. If roses are to be grown to perfection on such 
a soil it should also have stiff clayish loam intro- 
duced. 

Now the next problem for the woman gardener 
is how to obtain the necessary manures. In most 
towns there are manure merchants, but any cab or 
livery stable proprietor will sell horse-manure ; most 
dairymen will provide cow-manure if it is fetched, and 
there are always jobbing gardeners who will use their 
own barrows, or out-of-work labourers who can per- 
form the errand with sacks and a truck. Digging is 
fine exercise, but it must be admitted that dealing with 
whole loads of manure is an occupation that has its re- 
volting aspects ; the gardener or navvy may, therefore, 
be well employed to do this part of the task of ground 
preparation under close supervision. 

A few years ago road-sweepings, bought for about 
a shilling a load from the town's scavengers, were at 
the command of the amateur gardener ; now, owing 
to the prevalence of motor vehicles, the road dust is 
full of poisonous chemicals. If it is possible to have 
manure collected only from quiet country by-lanes, 
then the sweepings are excellent for furnishing both 
the nutriment and the grit that plants must have 
added to sticky clay soil. For the average garden, 
neither too sandy nor too clayey, mixed farmyard 
manure is good, and any farmer of a neighbourhood 



PREPARING THE GROUND 31 

is sure to be willing to cart a load as far as the front 
or back gateway of the garden, from which it can be 
wheeled in a barrow. 

If the ground has been pasture, newly enclosed for 
a garden, it will be sufficient to add horse manure at 
a depth of three feet where shrubs, roses, and strong- 
growing perennials are to be permanently set, and to 
merely fork up and weed the ground of beds and borders 
for bulbous and bedding subjects. If a new garden 
has been allotment land it is likewise tolerably sure 
to demand but little improvement. But generally 
a new plot has been " up " for building so long that 
it has become hard, stony, and weed-infested ; this 
means that only deep digging and scientific manuring 
will get it into condition. If possible it should be 
forked and turned (weeds, both roots and tops, being 
hand-lifted, thrown into heaps, and burnt on the soil 
which the vegetable ashes will do so much to benefit), 
then left in the rough — which implies thrown up 
irregularly and very lightly — for the atmosphere 
elements, and birds to pay attention to. The length 
of time land is left to sweeten and get rid of its insects 
in this fashion must, of course, depend on circum- 
stances ; a house that is built during winter should 
have its garden dug first, except where work-people 
must tramp, and the use of the fork, or hoe occasionally, 
will bring the soil into a splendid state by spring. Frosts 
and snow are wonderful gardeners, so, by-the-bye, are 
blackbirds, thrushes, robins, and many other birds. 
To leave ground in the rough for a week only is better 
than manuring and levelling the borders and beds 
immediately after digging. 

Scientific advisers, verbal or printed, have an off- 



32 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

hand way of saying, " The ground must be thoroughly 
trenched." The ignoramus is then left lamenting. 
Supposing a description is given of the trenching 
operation, there may not be any real help in the com- 
plex phrases. As a rule only new ground, or neglected 
ground, has to be trenched ; but let us see if the 
mysterious work cannot be clearly explained. 

Firstly a " spit " deep may be understood as a foot 
deep, so three spits deep is a three-foot depth. A 
spade, or trowel, removes firstly the top spit, or foot 
of soil, and places it on one side ; secondly the spade 
removes the next foot of soil, and lays that away 
separately ; thirdly the bottom foot of soil is forked 
well, and turned over, but not removed. So far so 
good. Now the top spit of soil is put in on the bottom 
layer, then the second spit of soil is put in to make up 
the level. That is the process of trenching. Usually 
manuring has to be done at the same time. Plenty 
of the food should be mixed with the bottom soil, 
because robust roots will know it is there and hurry 
down to it. A thick layer should be added before the 
top spit is laid on, another thick layer should separate 
this buried top spit from the second spit, which 
becomes the surface. Ground prepared like this will 
only have to be dug over half a yard deep, and more 
manure incorporated while digging is done, each 
second, third, or fourth year, according to the " crop " 
grown on it. 

Fresh, or rank, manure must never be used inside the 
soil unless no crops are to be planted or sown for some 
months, except in the case of road-sweepings, which 
are mixed with much grit, and have been already, of 
course, exposed, in spread-out state, to sun and wind. 



PREPARING THE GROUND 33 

Fresh manure from stable or cowsheds must become 
partly decayed before plants can thrive upon it. Six 
shillings a cartload is the price for manure in towns, 
but country dwellers can obtain it often for much 
less. 

Chemically treated hop manures are advertised truly 
as efficient substitutes for animal dung, for adding 
nourishment to beds and borders ; they are capitally 
stimulating and feeding, add a fibrous quality, a 
friable softness, and help to conserve moisture. 

Because vegetable ashes are known to be of immense 
value in soil some gardeners reserve a plot on which 
fires can be made at any time. Another plan is to 
spare space for a deep ditch into which debris can 
be thrown. If a layer of unslacked lime is added 
occasionally this will burn the refuse in a way, but 
some earth should always be kept on the surface of 
the rubbish, to prevent bad odours. A third method 
is to bury boughs, branches, dead plants, cabbage 
stumps, fallen leaves, grass cuttings, etc., etc., in some 
bit of ground that is to lie fallow for six months. The 
faulty scheme is to dig such waste stuff haphazard 
into ground that is to be planted soon, or sown, or 
has trees, shrubs, roses, or giant perennials already 
present. The decay is bound to be injurious while 
in progress ; mould and mildew rot roots or bulbs 
they touch, and turn the soil temporarily sour ; also 
the unburnt vegetation is sure to contain disease germs 
and insect pests, which attack all the living plants 
they can reach. Grass cuttings are especially subject 
to mildew. 

Ground preparation, in a garden of good character, 
may often be sufficiently done by spreading manure 

D 



34 EVERY WOMAN'S FLqpWER GARDEN 

as a mulch and forking it in a f ey c v weeks later, to a depth 
of half a yard, mixing it with ai£l the turned soil. 

On a damp bit of land a heaLvy protective mulch of 
manure round roses or plants :$$ a mistake — a mulch, 
that is to say, designed for an u extra winter covering. 
Fresh dry loam would be a better | material. The sandy, 
gravel, or chalky garden borders,^ though, may be kept 
snug from November to April by ( T a mulch of manure, 
to be lightly forked in during spri ng. 

If the woman gardener realises^; the lasting comfort 
of well-prepared soil she will not: grudge the labour, 
time, or cost of getting ready for some years of first- 
class floral triumphs. It is less trouble to start well 
than to have to tinker at the lan a d continually after- 
wards. 

On taking over possession of a galrden many years old 
it is prudent to test the soil to ascertain if there is a 
deficiency of lime, which is a positively essential 
ingredient. As an authority on horticultural chemistry 
has written, rich garden soil is nearly always benefited 
by a dressing. " Why are our gardens infested with 
grubs and myriads of soil pests ? ' he asks, then 
responds to his own questions. "-Why do not our 
peas flourish with bright green leaf and bountiful 
luxuriance ? Why are our applications of manure 
so ineffectual and without good i result ? Answer, 
' Because the soil lacks lime/ and hi nine cases out of 
ten you have defined the true cause.',' 

By a fascinating experiment the owner of land can 
discover if limelessness is its state. Let her half fill 
a tumbler with soil taken a few inches below the sur- 
face, fill the glass a third more with, water, and add 
to this, in five minutes, half an ounce of spirits of salts. 



PREPARING THE GROUND 35 

If the mixture effervesces there is lime enough ; if it 
does not, lime must be added to the garden or else 
not one crop will flourish. Lime ready ground is a 
very cheap remedy. Simply mark the land out into 
squares, three feet wide and three feet long, scatter 
one ounce and a quarter of the lime on each square, 
and then fork it in during February or March. It will 
not harm rose trees, shrubs, or big plants, but should 
not be thrown against foliage or stems. Failing ground 
lime, ordinary freshly burnt lime from a builder's can 
be crushed and applied. Insects detest it — in fact, 
very slight scatterings on the surface of beds and bor- 
ders, each week of spring, will do much to rid them of 
slugs. 

Gardening Proverb. — " ' Benefits spring from buried 
ills,' said the auld wife when the barking dog died." 



CHAPTER V 

THE CHARM OF THE MIXED BORDER 

" The flowers were full of song ; upon the rose 
I read the crimson annals of true love ; 
The violet flung me back an old romance ; 
All were associated with some link 
Whose fine electric throb was in the mind." 

Letitia Land on. 

VISIT an old garden in the heart of the country, 
by patriarchal farmhouse or thatched cottage, 
look for separate roseries, rockeries, annual 
and herbaceous borders, plots of congregated dahlias, 
and you will not find them. What will be discovered 
is a kindly association of shrubs, roses, perennials, 
annuals, bedding plants, the bulbous favourites of 
spring, fragrant ornamental herbs, all united by a 
ground covering of lesser flowers and pretty foliage. 
Now the charm of the mixed border is so winsome that 
one wonders why new gardens are not planted in the 
same style. Not that one would have the fashion 
become a craze, and separate features altogether 
avoided, but that, in some places, the dear antique 
skill in blending should again be exhibited. Mostly 
these past-century borders were edged by trimmed 
hedges of box, but rock edgings were also popular, 
and these offer crannies in which tiny mosses, alpines, 
and ferns soon find permanent lodgings, to the great 
enhancement of their beauty. 



THE CHARM OF THE MIXED BORDER 37 

Wherever hardy plants are grown near roses they 
require keeping in order, otherwise even the strong 
hybrid perpetuals, briars, and mosses will be weakened. 
Still, it is easy to dig away portions of sunflowers, 
phloxes, and Michaelmas daisies when they spread 
too far, or to thin out carpets of pinks and pansies. 
Clearances there will have to be in any case, for seedlings 
will spring up, almost too lavishly, in nice rich soil. 
The wallflowers, snapdragons, or foxgloves, for example, 
will soon have hosts of children clustering round their 
feet, but what delight these self-sown plants will 
cause if they are given away by the basketful to the 
girls and boys of the nearest school, or to poor women 
who cannot afford to buy garden stock ! 

Annuals, whether put out in April, May, and June, 
the bedding season, or sown in the spaces each year 
reserved for them, will leave gaps when cleared off in 
autumn : here is the chance for the introduction of 
such bulbs as will themselves have to be lifted before 
the room is again needed. Roman hyacinths, or the 
pink, blue, or creamy-yellow Italian hyacinths, do 
excellently out of doors ; Van Tholl tulips will be 
patches of vivid vermilion, yellow, or white in early 
March, and the bunch narcissi, of amber or snowy 
petals, take no harm from being exiled after their bloom 
is over. Large hyacinths, jonquils, double daffodils, 
and the majority of tulips will be too late for the gaps 
that are to be sown with annuals, but can be used where 
geraniums, heliotrope, fuchsias, begonias, and mar- 
guerites are to be set. 

The more informal the design of a mixed border 
the better imitation will it be of the gardening art of 
our great-grandparents. They seldom sought after 



38 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

patterns, except in certain beds, just to show what they 
could do if they chose, and in the clipping of their 
evergreens in some portions of the pleasure-grounds. 
Really people speak now as though all beds were 
geometrical spaces, all yews twined into shapes of 
peacocks, vases, globes, and crosses, and all hedges 
castellated ! 

The wider the mixed border, in reason, the richer will 
be its appearance ; a strip less than six feet wide is 
not much use for the purpose if trees and shrubs 
are to be included, though it could be filled with a 
mixture of perennial, annual, and bulbous plants. 
A border in the open should have the tallest subjects 
near the middle, except for some isolated bits of height 
towards the edges, to give variety. A border with 
wall or fence behind can have most of its giant orna- 
ments against this, with a few standing forward to 
prevent a monotonously level foreground. 

The two plans given of sections of mixed borders 
will indicate the principles on which the planter should 
go to work, and will also suggest definitely how certain 
flowers can be harmoniously combined. Of course 
other minglings would be as fair, if not fairer ; blossom 
lovers have their own pets among plants, even, maybe, 
their own aversions, and personal interest is always 
greatest when idiosyncrasies of taste are reproduced 
in gardens. 

In addition to the shrubs named there are countless 
species that look lovely among roses, lilies, sunflowers, 
asters, stocks, hollyhocks, etc. Scores of the most 
charming come into bearing in spring and early summer, 
before the midsummer and autumn wealth of colour ; 
others carry gay fruits long after the annuals are 



THE CHARM OF THE MIXED BORDER 39 

removed and the perennials have had to be cut down. 
Then there are tinted foliage shrubs, both evergreen 
and deciduous, such as the barberry, golden privet, 
silver or golden elder, variegated veronica, the green- 
and-yellow oleaster (elsegnus aurea reticulata), which 
contrast by solidity of form with the fragile growth 
of many flowers, as well as show off flower hues by 
their prodigal leafage. 




Fig. 6. The Mixed Border. 

A Pink Hollyhocks. B 5 Briar Roses. C China Pink Rose. 
D Bush Rose. E Pyrethrum Uglinosum. F Lavender. 
G Polyantha Roses. 

A trio of hollyhocks creates most effect from a dis- 
tance in the mixed border by a wall (Fig. 6) ; then the 
quintette of briar roses, the large bush of the rampant 
white rose, Boule de Neige, the three polyantha roses, 
which may be pink, red, and white, the lofty moon 
daisies (pyrethrum uglinosum), the pink China rose, 
and the lavender will stand out prominently, the last 
with Madonna lilies nestling against it. There can- 
not fail to be a grand floral show here from early months 
to late, especially if bulbs are given the annuals' places, 
as before suggested, and then are banished to some 
piece of waste-land ; for bulbous plants must finish 



40 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

their natural development, turn yellow of foliage, and 
die down above soil : if dragged up, and not replanted 
elsewhere before they complete their ripening growth 
stage, they may die — they will infallibly refuse to 
bloom next year. Put them in anywhere fairly 
sunny, even quite close together, and there they will 
prepare stamina for a finer blossoming next spring, 
after an October or November removal to a better home 
again. 

All the earth under the hollyhocks is covered by the 
silvery tufts of white Iceland poppies ; these nodding 
flowers will peep from among the foliage of the pink 
giants, especially if the latter have their generally 
superabundant supply of leaves thinned out. Briar 
roses, of crimson, carnation, blush, or white, will be 
rough, ruddy-stemmed objects, with only a sparse 
covering of leaves, and perhaps some coloured seed 
vessels still left, when that stretch of ground is a glade 
of bluebells : later their spreading boughs will give 
bluebell plants the shade they require. The pink 
China rose bush will very likely have some buds 
formed before the double daffodil carpet has left off 
showing gold, for, where sheltered, this old-fashioned 
member of the vast rose family often contrives to pass 
scarcely two months of winter bloomless. In any case 
there will be a delicious blue and pink effect when the 
alkanet is out ; and some of the ten-week stocks can 
be of azure. Pink will again be represented when 
the hardy creeping cranesbill (geranium endressi) 
starts in May, to continue its profuse yield until the 
frosts. Autumn has been catered for as carefully by 
the companionship of sunflowers with the seven-foot 
moon-daisies, of pea-green, velvet centre bosses 



THE CHARM OF THE MIXED BORDER 41 

(pyrethrum uglinosum) , and the bronze chrysanthe- 
mums beside golden rod. 

Though the consideration of unfamiliar perennials 
has purposely been reserved for a later chapter, it is 
not too soon to beg all readers to adopt the custom of 
giving flowers their English names by preference. 
Some of the novel introductions have been put on the 
market by terrible titles only, alas ! but nearly all the 




Fig. 7. A Mixed Border. 

A York and Lancaster Rose. B Standard Crimson Rose. 
C Southernwood. D Gold-rayed Lily of Japan. E Scarlet 
Sweet Peas. F White Broom. G Sweet Peas (Pale Blue, 
Rose, and Yellow). 

plants that have been years with us have managed 
to pick up simpler names. 

The border in the open, Fig. 7, has a centre splen- 
dour of sweet peas, madonna lilies, and a bush of 
the ancient striped red and white York and Lancaster 
rose, also a trio of the gold-rayed lily of Japan (lilium 
auratum), and a bush of snow-white broom. 

Flowering shrubs are always found in the farmhouse 
and cottage garden mixed borders, and no wonder ! 
They possess a generous habit, they break winds, and 
intercept too fierce sunbeams, Cas well as bestow their 



42 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

own excellencies of shape, scent, line, and form. Under 
many a guelder-rose bush may be discovered lurking 
starry yellow aconites, timid white violets, autumn 
crocuses, and creeping Jenny ; the soil beneath the 
snowberry tree is possibly blue with unperfumed wood- 
violets, or deep purple with those of the more gifted 
type ; perhaps we may discern sweetbriar and yellow 
jasmine, honeysuckle running up a pole, everlasting 
peas tied in a sheaf almost, a. myrtle grown from a 
bridal bouquet's cutting, a noble specimen of purplish- 
blue, bee-honoured sage. 

If there is sufficient sunshine it is sure there will be 
sufficient shade, because the towering subjects, and the 
dense foliaged ones, will have shadows, long or pro- 
found, for the comfort of dwarfs that need cool nooks. 

A new garden made up all of mixed borders, by 
lawns and boundaries, would be more attractive than 
are nine out of ten elaborately planned pleasure- 
grounds. The luxuriance of the notion pleases — that 
seeing at once the best cherished of trees, climbers, 
and plants, foreign flowers, woodland and field natives, 
roses ancient and modern, bulbous displays, late chry- 
santhemum masses, winter's berried ornaments, mid- 
summer's lilies. Why, there might be fruit trees too, 
rising out of carnations and pansies, as they used to 
do in dear old kitchen gardens of bygone days. 

Amateurs are usually anxious to know how near 
plants may be set to one another. To answer that 
question completely would perplex any oracle, but 
common sense, aided by a few hints, ought to suffice. 
A tree, for bearing fine fruit, must have- the ground 
bare for a yard at least about its trunk ; a shrub, 
which has no fruiting to do, can have perennials not 



THE CHARM OF THE MIXED BORDER 43 

more than nine inches high planted to where its lower 
boughs will spread, or trailing subjects, creeping 
Jennys, sweet woodruff, periwinkles, and violets, right 
beneath. A rose that needs mulching occasionally, 
that is expected to bloom prodigally as to quantity, 
or magnificently as to quality, must possess clear 
ground for a foot's space all round, but light-growing 
Iceland poppies, pinks, dwarf cornflowers, or dwarf 
alpines, such as mountain pinks and dianthuses, may 
approach up to that limit. Suppose a group of phloxes 
or chrysanthemums is to come next to a rose in a bor- 
der ? Well, the " next " in that case should mean 
quite three feet distant, the lesser plants filling the 
ground in between. 

When a " group of phloxes " is mentioned it is 
taken for granted that the single plants can stand two 
feet apart, if for an almost permanent display ; if 
they were put within one foot of each other there 
would be one, or perhaps two seasons' good blossom 
show, then the plants would have joined into a net 
of roots and would have to be divided. 

Broadly speaking, eighteen-inch tall perennials in 
a group should be a foot apart, nine-inch ones six 
inches, six-inch ones four inches. A grassy-leaved 
flax, however, rises high, but needs little root food ; 
a majestic but slender gladiolus need not command a 
half-yard site ; so there will invariably be a chance for 
the gardener's own wits to work. 

Pillar roses and clematises are a great improvement 
to the mixed border ; a rare arch or two, spanning 
the soil above a little plot of lilies or chrysanthemums, 
asphodels or gladioli, will provide a new pleasure ; 
a length of hedge, a stretch of yellow jasmine or 



44 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Japanese quince on a rustic espalier, a mound of 
rockery, a sunk pool, a rustic urn, are features that 
will delight if not too often repeated. 

Gardening Proverb. — " There's room in creation for 
all, but not within the same yard." 



CHAPTER VI 

SUCCESS WITH TURF 

" Here at my feet what wonders pass — 
What endless active life is here ! 
What blowing daisies, fragrant grass — 
An air-stirred forest fresh and clear." 

Matthew Arnold. 

A BEAUTIFUL garden can be shamed or hon- 
oured by its lawns. Now and then a shabby, 
almost unkempt flower garden strikes the 
visitor as being singularly lovely and inspiring, through 
the velvet softness of its turf, on which lights and 
shadows sport as daintily as fairies in a glen. Rough 
grass resists this shadow-play ; poor patchy grass has 
little effect under sunshine. 

Making a lawn is an act of benevolence that should 
be undertaken zealously, or loses half its merit. If 
it is perfectly made it will improve with years of kindly 
tending ; if it is the work of a slovenly person it must 
lie there as a mute reproach, or be taken up and 
stacked for potting mould. 

The impossible must not be expected. A strong 
desire for a lawn may lead a garden owner to lay down 
the best turves, or sow worthy seed, in a closed-in, 
dank place or under the drip of trees, upon barren, 
shifting sand or waterlogged clay, and the result will 
spell failure. Of course grass under trees is a legitimate 



46 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

arrangement enough. But all grass is not lawn ; 
the kind that can be let to grow rather long at certain 
seasons, and be starred over by naturalised flowering 
plants, will turn a shaded nook into a species of wood- 
land, that must delight artistic persons, but will not 
be suitable for close cropping for a playground. If 
grass is to be freely walked on, and mown regularly 
so that it never grows rankly, its roots must have a 
tight hold upon fit soil. Dark, damp, and airlessness 
are the lawn's enemies, just as dangerous as the 
insidious worms that throw up casts, or the vexatious, 
fortunately rare, moles that tunnel so devastatingly. 
A back garden of a villa facing south, if but a little 
plot, should have its grassy portions away from the 
building, or no sunshine will reach them after the early 
morning. Trees should only be planted at lawn ends 
or edges, where the expanse of turf will not be injured ; 
and trees that go to a point, like firs, are so much 
safer to choose, having a method of absorbing all their 
own drips, that, but for the charm of a spreading 
almond, double cherry, or acacia, we might decide 
to employ no long-armed standards at all. 

The difficulties of lawn-making are not extreme, 
unless the land has to be drained first. Should it 
require this treatment expert labourers must be called 
in. The underground slope for the two-inch drain 
pipes should be from twelve inches to eighteen at the 
end, where a larger pipe acts as main drain, which 
must have a flow to some outlet. The pipes have to 
be covered in by several inches of burnt ballast, which 
is really clay burnt with coal dust. A layer of this 
same ballast is desirable all under the bottom soil, and 
the rest of the soil has to be made up with good loam, 



SUCCESS WITH TURF 47 

mixed with grit, or coarse gravel, crushed brick 
rubble, and more burnt ballast. The woman gardener 
will not undertake pipe-laying herself, but these 
hints are to enable her to superintend the operations 
of men employed for the lawn draining, as faulty 
methods produce faulty grass. For instance, digging 
should not be done more deeply in one spot than in 
another, as loosened earth is bound to sink more or 
less, making it likely that the grass, after use, will 
show dips and hollows. A measuring-stick should 
be used constantly while the excavating is in progress, 
then the hard sub-soil will escape interference. 

Since draining involves such hard labour, conse- 
quently such expense, it is fortunate that a simple 
test can be applied for the settling of the problem if 
draining is needed. A safe answer is gained by digging 
a few holes, rather more than two feet deep, in the 
ground, leaving these covered by boards for a few 
days, and watching if any water lies at the base of the 
miniature pits. If none is visible then the land does 
not require draining. Seasons of prolonged drought 
are not right times for testing thus, while in the heart 
of a wet autumn, or when winter frosts have broken, 
a two-foot deep investigation will , be sufficient 
indication. 

When the surface is made up ready for laying turf, 
a well-forked eighteen inches of good soil beneath, 
mixed with grit if not by nature sandy, it is customary 
to put a three or four-inch layer of leaf -mould, vegetable 
ashes, and burnt earth for turves to actually rest 
on, but this is by no means obligatory. Turves are 
cheap in some counties, dear in others, and vary 
dangerously in quality. If taken from an old pasture 



48 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

meadow they are usually free from the worst weeds, 
but those from a buttercup and dandelion infested 
field will but bring trouble into the garden. In open 
country the finest turves are often found in the grassy 
stretches flanking lanes, while the grass stretches 
of commons are sometimes weedless and admirably 
" springy." 

The method of laying turf is to place the strips half 
an inch apart, not touching, then lightly pat the whole 
over, which flattens them until they almost meet. 
A turf -beater is the professional tool for the job, but 
the flat of a spade will do, or the back of the trowel 
if the expanse is moderate. Next some leaf-mould, 
preferably mixed with as much burnt clay, is strewn 
sparingly over the joining lines, and just pressed in. 
Some authorities say that if common carbolic powder 
is added to the cementing-soil between the turves 
there will be no invasion of the new lawn by either 
worms or moles. 

After rain has fallen a dressing of gritty loam and 
slaked lime should be given the whole of the lawn. 
Turf-laying can be done in September, February, or 
March, indeed almost at any time when fierce sunheat 
is not dreaded In April the autumn or spring made 
lawn needs lightly rolling ; as soon as the grass has 
attained a height of three or four inches it must be cut. 
Old-fashioned gardeners feared to use any mower, and 
always plied a scythe for the first cuttings, but a fairly 
light machine, with the knives set not too low, and 
no box on it, will not do any damage unless the soil 
is in too wet a state. April afternoons will be drier 
than mornings or evenings. A turfed lawn can be 
used for games the first summer ; a sown lawn can 



SUCCESS WITH TURF 49 

generally be sparingly used, two or three times a week 
for tennis or croquet, certainly not for cricket, from 
midsummer onwards if autumn made, or from August 
if April sown. The turfed lawn, by-the-bye, is sure 
to need weeding about the end of March, and the holes 
left have to be sown with grass-seed. 

Amateur gardeners cannot be too strongly cautioned 
against cheap seed for lawn making ; so much care 
and patience has to go to the " screening " of seed 
to ensure its being pure that it cannot be sold at the 
lowest prices. What is required for a tennis or croquet 
court, bowling-green, or decorative lawn, is a mixture 
of dwarf evergreen grasses. Side lawns, where no 
play will be done, and the same stretches will not be as 
constantly walked over, can be sown with a mixture 
of evergreen grasses and fine white Dutch clover ; 
the latter seed, quick to spring up into growth, able 
to resist drought and impart a refreshing deep green 
to the lawn's colour, certainly has its merits, but clover 
is slippery under the tread, and gives a patchy effect 
at some seasons, just through its verdant hue. When 
employed, a tenth portion of its seed must be thoroughly 
mingled with the seeds of grasses. Coarser grass 
seeds are sold for pastures, cricket grounds, and golf 
courses, special mixtures too for clothing land under 
trees, in shady or partially shady places. 

Then the amount of seed for a given area has to be 
ascertained. Let the woman gardener act generously. 
The seedsman can be trusted to explain to her what 
is the usual quantity, what is the more lavish, therefore 
safer, amount to sow. The finest seed is about two 
and threepence a pound, a coarser kind being priced 
at one and tenpence, or one and sixpence. White 

E 



50 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Dutch clover costs about half a crown a pound, but 
goes a great deal further. The regulation size for a 
single-handed tennis-court is seventy-eight feet by 
twenty-seven feet ; the four-handed court is seventy- 
eight feet by thirty-six feet, but four yards more are 
usually allowed at the ends, and two yards more at 
each side. Croquet can be played on a smaller lawn. 

Having bought grass seed the gardener will be eager 
to sow it ; she may do this any time between February 
and July, or from the end of August to the middle 
of October, but there is no better month than September 
in the south or warm west, where severest winters 
are not felt, nor than April in other localities. The 
ground should be dug two feet deep if known to be 
damp, poor, or weed-infested ; one foot deep will do if 
it has been under cultivation. Every fragment of 
weed root must be cast out as discovered. If at all 
poor a little well-decayed horse manure may be added 
to the soil, but this should be passed through a wire 
sieve, so as to rid it of lumps and guarantee that it 
lies all over the space : if it is present in some spots, 
not in others, the grasses that are fed will be greener 
and ranker than their unstimulated brethren. Chemi- 
cal lawn-manure may be used in preference ; many 
kinds are sold, by the hundredweight or in tins from 
a shilling upwards, and instructions are sent out as to 
the quantity of each sort to use. 

The surface soil has next to be raked, freed from 
stones, then rolled firm and level. A slight scratching 
up is done by the rake, the seed is scattered as evenly 
as possible, after being carefully calculated and divided, 
so much to each yard ; the rake is used again 
to hide it, or some loam may be thrown over through 



SUCCESS WITH TURF 51 

a sieve — probably the easier and more satisfactory 
method. If seed can be seen lying, sparrows and 
other small birds will not only devour that, but dis- 
cover the stores just below. When black cotton can 
be stretched between little bits of stick, across and 
across, the seed is quite safeguarded, but flapping or 
tinkling scarecrows have to be resorted to when the 
lawn is of great extent. 

After treatment must not be scamped. If drought 
follows sowing, some early morning or evening water- 
ings through a fine hose become necessary ; if there 
is no hose the work can be done by a light-footed person, 
in heelless shoes or boots, with the aid of a fine-rosed 
watering-can. If the grass is not well up in three 
weeks' time the sower may begin to despair — not till 
then ; frequently a patchy appearance distresses, 
but sowing these patches with more seed can always 
be a later adopted remedy, interference at the early 
stage being generally a mistake. Cutting should be 
done as soon as the young grass is three or four inches 
high, as recommended for the newly-turfed lawn, 
and mowings will be required every nine days or so, 
oftener as the grass strengthens. There should be 
constant rollings after slight rainfalls, or when the 
surface ground has recovered from the excessive wet- 
ness of heavy ones. 

Another caution must be given as to the use of the 
mowing machine, or grass-cutter. If the handles 
are leant on heavily the wheels will dig into the lawn 
and make it uneven ; if it is used after frosts, or 
tempests, the surface soil will be slimy and slippery, 
the wheels will crush grass blades into its mud, and 
so stick fast themselves that, upon resuming rolling, 



52 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

they will drag up roots and cause bare spots to appear, 
The grass must never be permitted to grow rankly 
tall, yet the mowings are better postponed a few days 
when the ground conditions are unsuitable. Mid- 
days are often dry enough, when evenings and mornings 
are dew-drenched. 

Renovating old lawns can be done by scratching 
them gently with a rake and sowing seed sparingly 
over the whole surface, by treating the worst patches 
only in similar style, or by collecting grass " weeds ' ! 
from beds and borders, and transplanting these, an 
inch apart, where needed. A lawn can be cleared of 
moss by giving it a good dressing with wood-ashes, 
which will not harm any grasses. When old lawns 
are worm-infested they are sure to be slippery and 
unpleasant to walk upon, but worm-killing powder 
can be bought cheaply, and if sprinkled evenly will 
result in a crop of dead worms ready to be swept up 
and burnt next morning. A poor lawn can be fed 
by one of the powder manures sold for the purpose ; 
the correct quantity to employ will be mentioned 
upon the tins. 

No garden is quite perfect without " a smooth 
carpet of verdant turf, softer and more elastic than a 
Persian rug " ; still a tiled garden can be perfect of 
its sort, and a gravel garden be more meritorious in 
a place where the grass would be faulty. Mr. Eugene 
Delamer, a famous writer in 1864, may be quoted on 
this topic. 

" Grass is such a staple article in English gardens, 
and in truth adds so much to their beauty, that it 
seems hard to discourage its employment in towns. 
And yet, what are most of the grass-plots met with there, 



SUCCESS WITH TURF 53 

even with all the expense that is incurred for returfing, 
sanding, rolling, mowing, and guano ? " (Or other 
feeding.) " Too often do we behold half -naked patches 
of ground, like threadbare coats or shocking bad hats, 
that you have no pleasure in looking at, and are afraid 
to walk on. If the blades of grass will spindle up, long, 
lank, few and far between, if the roots will not tiller 
and thicken, it is better to occupy the space with 
something else, even with a layer of clean bright gravel. 
Where a strip of green is wanted to run along the 
ground, as at the foot of buildings, round the base of a 
pedestal, or as the framework of a grass plot that 
is intended never to be trodden on, ivy answers 
the purpose well, especially if its band of green is 
broad/' 

Admirable counsel ! But where grass can be, 
whether it is over noble spaces, or as a foot-wide belt 
to border a shrubbery, for whole undulating side 
lawns, or small divisions between beds, let it be started 
well and maintained tenderly. The way the tree 
shadows lie on turf, the thrushes and blackbirds haunt 
it, the quivering lights dance there, the footsteps are 
softened when crossing it, the restfulness of the 
colour, the breathing space it provides, the unchecked 
range for sight, are all arguments in favour of its crea- 
tion. Grassy walks show off flowers as gravel or stone 
cannot, because green is the natural frame to blossoms ; 
and it is certain that turf of genuine excellence is no 
damper than other paths, on which puddles form 
more and linger longer. All that is necessary is to 
roll, sweep, and cut persistently ; and it should be as 
possible for a talented literary woman to compose a 
sonnet, or a plot, while holding the machine handles, 



54 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

as for a Burns to invent lyrics while following a plough. 
At any rate, time spent in health-giving, serviceable 
exercise is never wasted. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Two blades of grass do not 
make a lawn." 



CHAPTER VII 



ROSES AND ROSERIES 



" First of all, the rose ; because its breath 
Is rich beyond the rest ; and when it dies 
It doth bequeath a charm to sweeten death." 

Barry Cornwall. 

A DOZEN volumes might be written about 
roses, and yet the subject remain unex- 
hausted. This chapter shall be devoted to 
suggestions where to place roses, and which species 
and varieties to choose for different uses and situations. 
" Shall I have roses ? " is the question a woman 
gardener puts to herself directly she has a new garden 
to stock, or an unsatisfactory part of a made one to 
improve. Ten to one she decides in favour of " bed- 
ding stuff " instead, because she understands how to 
manage that, while suspicious of her powers to control 
the queen of flowers. Pruning is a mystery only till 
learnt, planting roses is so plain a task that a child 
can master its routine in an hour's lesson. So 
there is really no need at all for rose culture to be 
regretfully shunned as beyond the skill of the tyro at 
gardening. We will smooth away the difficulties 
presently ; meanwhile let it be taken on trust that 
no garden is easier, cheaper, or less labour-involving 
to manufacture and keep up than the garden in which 
roses predominate. 



56 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Another welcome truth is that there are very few 
localities where the rose will not thrive, and no aspects 
for which, in suitable varieties, it cannot be sensibly 
chosen. A woodland can have briar and Japanese 
species, with ramblers to climb dead trees in the 
clearings ; a bleak hilltop, on which perennials are 
gale-prostrated and half-hardy annuals are beaten to 
death, or torn up by the roots, may be covered by 
pegged-down creeping roses, sturdy little bushes of 
spiny Scotch roses, or well-staked polyanthas. 

" Shall I have roses ? " — Why, yes, buy them at 
six shillings a dozen, a good average price which will 
mean the inclusion of quite up-to-date varieties, put 
them practically everywhere, and with happy confi- 
dence await a royal recompense. 

To begin with the house wall is a measure for 
bringing perfume and colour-beauty closest to the 
home. More errors are made in giving hardy roses 
too hot sites than in exposing hybrid perpetuals and 
hybrid teas on cold ones ; a crimson rambler, for 
example, nailed to brick on which mid-day sunshine 
beats, will shrivel up and die. For the north wall — 
the worst possible, since the north-east one gets a 
glimpse of morning sunshine — the choice is limited ; 
still, pleasure can surely be taken in persuading any 
blossoms to open where the generality of gardeners 
would only endeavour to provide ivy or Virginian 
creeper ? Deep rich soil is needed, and the border should 
slope slightly to the edge, in order that surplus wet 
may find an outlet. If the ground is devoid of nourish- 
ment (as is so frequently the case with wall-backed 
borders, especially if broken slates and bricks have 
been cast into it a foot or so below the surface) roses 



ROSES AND ROSERIES 57 

will not survive ; but neither could they do so were the 
aspect the most kindly. The following lists are suited 
to all ordinary gardens : 

NORTH WALL ROSES 

Alberic Barbier. Creamy-white, yellow flushed, in 

clusters ; deep green glossy foliage. 
Catherine Seyton. Hybrid sweet briar, pink, constant 

blooming. 6 feet tall when trained. 
Felicite Perpetue. Creamy white, of good size, strong 

growing ; glossy leaved. 
The Dawson Rose. Pale pink, very full flowers of 

good size, rampant grower, with a beautiful 

" weeping " habit of branch. 
Rosa Rugosa. Deep rose, bluish shaded. Vigorous ; 

single ; produces red seed-pods and its foliage 

becomes tinted in autumn. 9 feet tall on a wall. 
Dundee Rambler. White, pink-edged ; extra vigorous. 
Longworth Rambler. Crimson, semi-double ; very 

hardy. 

EAST WALL ROSES 

Reine Olga de Wurtemberg. Vivid scarlet-crimson, 
semi-double, tall and strong. 

Polyantha Grandiflora. Large trusses of white, single, 
bramble-like blooms ; very hardy. 

Noella Nabonnand. Damask-crimson, very large, vel- 
vety, semi-double flowers. 

Gracilis. Bright pink, single ; sure to flourish. 

Gloire de Dijon. Buff, often at its best where exposed 
to only morning sunshine. 

Boule de Neige. Pure white globular blossoms ; very 
free blooming. 



58 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Ards Rover. Crimson, shaded with maroon ; rapid 

grower. 
Euphrosyne, the pink rambler. Wild rose-pink ; will 
reach the roof of a villa. 

WEST WALL ROSES 

Aglaia, the yellow rambler. Lemon ; exceptionally 
lovely shining foliage ; does not bloom freely 
until the second year after planting. 

Aimee Vibert. Pure white, in clusters, foliage nearly 
evergreen. 

William Allen Richardson. Retains its orange-apricot 
colour best in this situation. 

Climbing Captain Hayward. Crimson, large blooming, 
extra perfumed. 

Climbing Frau Karl Druschki. Snow white, very big. 

The Wallflower. Brownish crimson, flowering all 
along the shoots. 

SOUTH WALL ROSES 

Souvenir de Leonie Viennot. Amber, flushed with 

red, tea-scented, large and free. 
Reve d'Or. Yellow, not large but free and continuous, 

and a rapid grower. 
Madame Alfred Carrier e. White. 
Gruss an Teplitz. Scarlet-crimson, cup-shaped ; very 

free, ruby-tinted foliage. 
Climbing Mrs. W. J. Grant. Bright pink, very large. 
Bouquet d'Or. Yellowish buff ; very full and fragrant. 
Climbing Devoniensis. Creamy- white ; exquisite for 

warm places. 
Billard et Barre. A beautiful golden rose. 



ROSES AND ROSERIES 59 

It may be generally reckoned that a south-west 
wall will suit any rose but those known as terribly 
delicate, such as Devoniensis, Marechal Niel, and 
Niphetos, except those which are extra hardy, since 
these resent the heat thrown off by sun-baked brick. 
That is the reason why the rampant ramblers succumb. 
Arches and trellises, rustic summer-house sides, wood 
arbours and porches, pergolas, pillars, or verandahs 
of painted iron will not become as heated as brick, 
stucco, or stone ; still, the last-mentioned, being near 
the house, seldom offer fit positions for robust roses 
unless facing north or east. For safety's sake, fences 
may be considered as walls. Pergolas are, of course, 
the usual home for the popular ramblers. 

Roses for beds should be grouped together as much 
for their species — or it would be more correct to say 
for their classes — as for their colours, as, if a slow- 
growing tea variety is paired with a go-ahead hybrid 
perpetual, a lop-sided appearance must result that 
cannot be remedied by any amount of pruning. All 
teas are not necessarily low of stature, Homer and Marie 
Van Houtte, rosy-edged, flushed with blush-cream, 
and pink-shaded lemon respectively, will make fine 
bushes, or can be nailed seven feet high against a wall ; 
yet it can be taken for granted that a tea rose will 
always be fit to plant where a low one is required, 
because it will blossom well when restricted as to 
height. 

The real rosery can be represented by a few beds on 
a lawn, or a hedge-enclosed, gravelled, or flagged piece 
of land with beds therein ; it may as suitably be a 
couple of magnificent rose borders, flanking a grass 
walk or paved path, arched over at intervals. Indeed, 



60 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

the term " rosery " is remarkably elastic ; it can be 
made to reach to extremes, or remain of small signifi- 
cance. 

A new style of rosery is shown by Fig. 8, where 
elegance of outline is at once noticed as chief merit. 
There are two borders, one at each end, otherwise 
the whole show will be made by standard roses, save 
where two pillar climbers rise. The lightsome appear- 
ance of these prim but beautiful standards above the 
grass will give welcome originality to the garden. 
There is no need for only standards to be planted, 
however ; on the side lawns bushes would afford variety 
and also lessen expense, or half-standards might be 
bought, which would call attention to the superior 
dignity of the full standards elsewhere. The broad 
walk would look grand made into a pergola colonnade 
of considerable height, but, in that case, the sundial 
would have to be given up, for lack of appropriately 
unrestricted sunshine. 

How different is the plan of the formal rosery 
(Fig. 9). Yet this too has its legitimate appeal to 
taste, and could be well made on less ground than the 
elegant rosery demands. 

Separating rose colours, when nearly all are to be 
patronised, always requires thought, for pink and 
salmon, scarlet and carmine, gold and apricot are 
fiercely antagonistic. It will be found, if this plan is 
adhered to, that the bed of all white, the pale-hued 
" blush " beds and white and lemon arches, will per- 
fectly separate those hues that would otherwise fight 
for their whole lives. The beds can have neat edgings 
of white and laced pinks, white or rosy mossy saxi- 
frages, rock-cresses, creeping crane's-bill, violas, the 



ROSES AND ROSERIES 



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Fig. 8. A Beautiful Rosary, 




Fig. 9. A Formal Rosery. 



ROSES AND ROSERIES 63 

smaller violettas, double red or white daisies, thrift, 
forget-me-nots, and hare-bells. 

Some places are so windswept that all plants suffer, 
roses and shrubs being blown sideways and lashed 
cruelly. To have a healthy rosery it is necessary to 
protect it all the way round, except for open exits 
and entrances, which should be narrow, and not on 
the sides from which the chief gales come. By the 
sea it is not always the north or east wind that is most 
to be dreaded ; sou'-westers can be devastating. Now 
the strongest barrier to winds, short of a brick wall or 
close fence, is an evergreen hedge, and the common 
laurel will make that soonest — sooner even than the 
all-green euonymus. 

A little sheltered rosery is pictured, at least as 
ground-plan, in Fig. 10. A centre bed, of unusual 
shape, and four corner beds, afford scope for separat- 
ing roses of red, deep and pale pink, white, and yellow, 
or those corner spaces could contain mixed colours, 
a more commendable idea, perhaps, when it is remem- 
bered what numbers of delightful rose varieties there 
are that cannot be classified precisely as to tint because 
each contains so many. Blended rose-colours, often 
copper, scarlet, buff and lemon, or yellow, peach, and 
carmine, in the same blossom, have a charm all their 
own ; so too have the variable roses, such as Monsieur 
Paul Lede, that is salmon in some soils, nearly cream 
in others, yet is to be found catalogue-described also 
as " brown-yellow suffused with rose " ; or Beaut e 
Inconstante, which may yield a coppery-red semi- 
double flower on one shoot, and a yellow, carmine- 
streaked flower on another, with possibly some salmony- 
pink blooms lower down. 



64 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

It is astonishing how fervent is the praise accorded 
a round rosery, a suitable plan for which is shown by 



EVERGREEN 






HEDGE 






CfRAVEL 



WHITE 



EEP PINK 




PALE PINK 



YELLOW 



& ■ .. ■ .■ ■. . ■ .. ■ .. ■ ■ ■ .. . .■■■ ■ 



'•i&'i'i'itt* 



V 



Fig. 10. A Square Rosery. 

Fig. ii. There is no more talent called for in the 
creation of this rose garden of curves than for one of 
acute angles, but gardeners are proverbially conserva- 
tive, elect to go on, year after year, cultivating by the 



ROSES AND ROSERIES 



65 



same methods, and to the same designs, buying or 
propagating identical " stuff," setting usual colours 
in pairs or trios ; consequently any break in routine 




Fig. 11. A Round Rosery. 

soon arouses envy and enthusiasm, or the imitation 
that best compliments. 

If this rosery were made in a tempestuous spot the 
five outer borders could contain the sheltering hedge, 
or else a length of tall, fine-meshed trellis each ; but 
where conditions are favourable they should hold the 
" mixed " or composite-colour roses, and beyond a 

F 



66 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

path encircling the whole could come more borders 
for herbaceous plants, or a scented, myriad-hued frame 
made of hedges of sweet peas. It is a lovely little 
design, formal yet soft of effect, with the star of grass 
making long green points among the easily approached 
trees. Each opening between the borders could be 
singly or doubly arched over. 

To make a rose pyramid on a small scale a pillar rose, 
to be ten feet high, should be planted first, surrounded 
by three trees of some notably prodigious grower of 
bush type, such as the scarlet-crimson J. B. Clark, 
which ungrateful folk are fond of calling too strong 
of branch for any but the largest gardens. Next 
should come a quintette of a less tall, yet still go-ahead 
rose, such as white Frau Karl Druschki (the dwarf, 
not the climber), or the popular favourite Madame Abel 
Chatenay, salmon-pink, would do well, followed by a 
ring of a dwarf polyantha, of which the snowy Anna 
Marie de Montravel is most floriferous and spreading. 

Alas, we cannot all devote a certain area to the 
creation of a rosery ; some of us must be content with 
growing pet roses in the borders of mixed flowers and 
shrubs, others may prefer to fill beds with them. This 
is an always satisfactory action. Roses are with us so 
many months in succession, if a wise selection of sorts 
is made ; roses have stems and leaves that never 
offend the eye as do fading perennials, yellowing 
bulbous plants, and dying annuals ; and beds occupied 
by them, if florally edged, and kept nicely as to surface 
soil, maintain a decorous appearance from Christmas 
to Christmas. 

Excellent bedding roses for sunny open gardens of 
average climate are : 



ROSES AND ROSERIES 67 

Mad. Jules Grolez. Hybrid tea. Silvery deep rose. 
*Mrs. John Laing. Hybrid perpetual. Bright pink. 

Pharisaer. H.T. White, clouded with pale rose. 
*Ulrich Brunner. H.P. Cherry red. 

Mrs. R. C. Sharman Crawford. H.P. Pink. 

Antoine Ri voire. H.T. Deep cream, with a salmon- 
buff shade. 

Richmond. H.T. Scarlet crimson. 
*Gustave Griinerwald. H.T. Carmine. 

La France. H.T. Silvery rose, with bluish shading. 

Harry Kirk. H.T. Deep yellow. 
*Helen Keller. H.P. Rosy cerise. 
*His Majesty. H.T. Dark crimson, flushed with 
scarlet. 

Hon. Edith Gifford. T. White, with flesh centre. 
*Hugh Dickson. H.P. Scarlet-crimson. Tall. 

Gladys Harkness. H.T. Salmon rose. 
*General Jacqueminot. H.P. Scarlet-crimson. 
*George Arens. H.P. Called the pink " Druschki," 
but sweetly perfumed. 

George Laing Paul. H.T. Bright deep crimson. 

* Fisher Holmes. H.P. Scarlet. 

Earl of Warwick. H.T. Salmon-pink, with ver- 
milion centre. 

Dupuy Jamain. H.P. Cerise red. 

Dean Hole. H.T. Silvery carmine, sometimes nearly 
salmon. 

* Countess of Oxford. H.P. Bright carmine red. 
Baroness Rothschild. H.P. Light pink. 
Augustine Guinoisseau. H.T. White, tinted with blush. 

*A. K. Williams. H.P. Carmine red, very bright. 
Lady Quartus Ewart. H.T. Pure white. 

* Those marked with a star are good roses for town gardens. 



68 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

*La Tosca. H.T. Pale salmon blush. 
La France de '89. H.T. All deep rose. 
*Mad. Gabriel Luizet. H.P. Silvery pale pink. 
*Mad. Pierre Cochet. H.T. Known as the improved 

W. Allen Richardson. Orange gold. 
Marquise Litta. H.T. Carmine-rose, with vermilion 

centre. 
Merveille de Lyon. H.P. White, yellowish centred. 
Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. H.T. Creamy blush. 
Prince Camille de Rohan. H.P. Deepest velvety 
crimson. 
♦Reynolds Hole. H.P. Maroon, shaded with scarlet. 
Souvenir de Pierre Notting. T. Deep yellow. 
Triomphe de Pernet Pere. H.T. Crimson-rose, very 

free blooming. 
Viscountess Folkestone. H.T. Creamy, with flesh 
centre. 
♦Caroline Testout. H.T. Pink. 
Killarney. H.T. Flesh and pale pink. 

Just a few of the most fascinating roses are of doubt- 
ful strength ; that is to say, they may flourish, like 
wildings, in many a spot that seems unkind, while in 
other places, where they appear to possess the most 
luxurious circumstances, they sicken and depart. 
But no enthusiastic rosarian will love them any the 
less on that account, or refrain from trying to please 
them by a sunny site and good soil. Many and many 
a time a rose fails because of the closeness of its position, 
rather than falls victim to cutting winds ; trees must 
have fresh air, or else, as human beings, they will 
become victims to maladies and gradually lose vigour. 

* Those marked with a star are good roses for town gardens. 



ROSES AND ROSERIES 69 

Exquisite semi-delicate roses, fit, however, for most 
well-made roseries, include : 

Anna Olivier. T. Creamy ground flushed with flesh. 
Betty. H.T. Ruddy gold and rose. 
Duchess of Wellington. H.T. Deep yellow, flushed 

with copper and crimson. 
Francois Dubreuil. T. A wonderful damask-red tea. 
George C. Waud. H.T. Orange- vermilion. 
Lady Hillingdon. T. Clear golden orange. 
Lyon Rose. H.T. Coral-shrimp. 
Mad. Hoste. T. Pale lemon. 
Mrs. Fred Straker. H.T. Orange with crimson and 

rose. 
Lady Roberts. T. Rich apricot. 

Again, many a glorious rose is so shy-blooming that 
to recommend it for general culture would be to invite 
censure, yet amateurs do exist who would far rather 
have a few enormous or especially exquisite blossoms 
on a tree than a profusion of inferior roses. W. E. 
Lippiatt, a maroon-shaded crimson H.T., is never 
forgotten when once seen ; the coppery crimson of 
Ben Cant is unlike any other variety we own ; Souvenir 
de S. A. Prince is a precious pearly white, but seldom 
begins until autumn ; the flesh-coloured H.T. Queen of 
Spain, large and globular, is a masterpiece indeed ; 
the yellow petals of Mad. Constant Soupert are shaded 
with rare peach pink ; and a splendid yellow is the 
H.T. Duchess of Portland. 

Dwarf polyantha roses are mostly very hardy, and 
make charming beds, borders to beds of taller trees, 
or bank sides or summits, while dotted about a large 
rockery they exhibit the lovely contrast there is between 



70 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

harsh, solid, grey rocks and the daintiest of leafy 
boughs and many-tinted blossom trusses. Mignonette 
is wild rose pink, Ma Paquerette white, Aschenbrodel 
a blend of peach and salmon, Etoile de Mai all yellow, 
Mad. N. Levavasseur is called the dwarf crimson 
rambler, Orleans-Rose is pink with scarlet and white, 
and Leonie Lamesch gives tomato-orange, with yellow, 
blush, or scarlet markings. 

Paul Neyron is a good old deep pink rose that every- 
body should grow, simply because, floppy and perhaps 
coarse though it may be termed, it is still the largest 
rose of all, positively Brobdingnagian, and will flourish 
like an elder-tree. Gustave Regis is another rather 
floppy beauty, but clear pale yellow ; it can be grown 
on a wall or fence, or as a big bush ; branches of it 
are a delight for cutting. Penzance briar roses are all 
hardy, sweet, tall, and useful for rough places or 
hedges, though not as over-abundantly vigorous as 
the Japanese roses (rosa rugosa), which will be fully 
described in a chapter on the shady garden. 

Only the greediest rose-lover will want to banish the 
copper and yellow Austrian briars because they have 
but one season of early bloom, and then do not show 
a bud till another June, for their graceful branching 
growth and peculiar colour-sprays — all spread out with 
colour, from stem to bough-tips — entitles them to 
special favour. Florists have provided, in Flower of 
Fairfield, a crimson rambler that goes on blossoming, 
but for the perpetual Austrian briars we are still 
waiting. 

Several favourite early summer roses, of more ordin- 
ary appearance than the briars, have not been recom- 
mended, as there are others of continual budding that 



ROSES AND ROSERIES 71 

can take their places. However, grand, tall old blush 
Margaret Dickson is worthy furnishing for any large 
bed centre, or border background, and there is no rose 
quite as pinkly perfect as Captain Christy, whose 
climbing species is robust enough to cover a west or 
east house-front, or smother a trellis. It reminds one 
of the antique adage as to the impossibility of eating 
cake and having it still ! Because these roses know 
they must soon cease blossoming they do it royally for 
the short spell vouchsafed to them. We may have a 
hundred big, bouncing, full-petalled blooms all at 
once, and then — remember them. 

Pillar roses are becoming more and more esteemed. 
A satisfying way to plant them is as a double avenue, 
on either side of a grass walk ; as specimens at lawn 
edges they produce stately effects, or can singly 
embellish the middles of little front gardens. Rampant 
ramblers are troublesome on short pillars, as they make 
too much growth, but the majority of other climbing 
roses are suited to nine as well as to twelve-foot supports, 
while for six or eight-foot ones the following are better : 

Alister Stella Gray. Noisette. Yellow, in clusters, con- 
tinuous and fragrant. 

Ards Pillar. Bright crimson. Large-cupped blooms. 

Blairii No. 2. Hybrid China. Blush. 

Diabolo Wichuriana. Fiery red, shot with sepia. 

Fairy. Single white ; constant, in clusters. 

Francois Crousse. T. Light red, large. 

Gruss an Teplitz. H.T. Scarlet-crimson. 

L' Ideal. Noisette. Yellow and copper-scarlet. 

Madame Berard. T. Salmon and buff-yellow. A 
relative of Gloire de Dijon. 

Belle Lyonnaise. Canary yellow, 



72 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Rudely strong roses of any class will make fine pillar 
specimens — J. B. Clark, Hugh Dickson, Gustave 
Regis, and Felicite Perpetue, any of the old damasks, 
or the common pink china, for example. 

Weeping standards are glorious lawn features, 
Dorothy Perkins, or the fiery red and white Hiawatha 
being greatly valued in this form. 

The catalogues of rose-growers should be carefully 
studied, then by degrees the amateur will pick up 
knowledge of the true meanings of descriptive terms, 
will learn that " good for exhibition " signifies usually 
a shy bloomer, that " a good decorative variety " hints 
at loose petals combined with great size, or else a 
multitude of medium large blossoms. But let the 
woman gardener strive after catholicity of taste. 
Singles, semi-doubles, globular giants, all are beautiful, 
and not even the so-called " Blue Rose " the climber 
Velichenblau, though a queer red-lilac at first, then 
steel-indigo-slate, can be denied a charm of colour. 

Is there a millionaire anywhere who can boast of 
having a specimen tree of every known rose ? If not, 
no millionaire has discovered how to make a really 
sane and enjoyable use of his riches ! 

Gardening Proverb. — " To expect a life all roses is 
the thought of a fool ; to strive to obtain it the work 
of a philosopher.' ' 



CHAPTER VIII 



ROSE PLANTING, FEEDING, AND PRUNING 

" Though rich the spot 
With every flower this earth has got, 
What is it to the nightingale 
If there his darling rose is not ? " 

Moore. 



I 



"^HE ideal time to plant roses is the beginning 
of November, or the last week of October 
for the extreme north, but December is a 
very safe month, especially in the south, where rose 
foliage lingers long after trees are leafless in exposed 
country or chill counties. Supposing the task has to 
be deferred, the woman gardener may still keep on 
smiling. Until the end of March planting may be 
done ; after that, though rose sales, bargains at 
extraordinary reductions ; " special offers," " dozens 
that must be cleared," are tempting, and the following 
year can still be catered for, it is senseless to plant 
with any view to seeing flowers in the approaching 
summer. Buy by all means, if you are sure that the 
trees are really fine surplus stock, not articles more or 
less manufactured, like blouses, for the sale period ; 
fill spare borders or plots in April, or even May ; cut 
the shoots severely back, and when new shoots grow 
nip away every incipient bud. By that means, for- 
bidding any blossom until June twelvemonth, it is 
actually possible to obtain a nice strong rose collection 



74 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

very much under cost. If the trees are let to give a 
few weak blooms, which will be no pleasure, after all, 
their root and branch development will be retarded, 
they will become weak, and many may die off either 
through drought in the hot months, or frost in the cold 
ones. Beautiful roses are only to be had from stalwart- 
rooted trees. 

When ordering roses it is always wise to send for 
them from a grower in a less favourable locality than 
the one they are to live in ; having the supply from the 
same town, or a village a few miles out, is, of course, no 
risk, unless climatic conditions are very varied in the 
area. In a seaside town it is not always prudent to have 
roses moved from an inland nursery, where they have 
been sheltered under hills, and plump them down in face 
of all the blasts that cross the ocean. Roses from the 
midland and northern counties are probably best for 
most gardens. Roses from the gravelly, sandy soils 
of parts of Surrey, Kent, Hertfordshire, etc., seldom 
take kindly to London's yellow clay, or heavy clayish 
loam anywhere, although the rose generally is a lover 
of stiff ground. Similarly, though trees pulled up from 
the stiffest cold, wet land will thrive all right in well- 
manured, light soils, they take long in becoming satisfied 
with their portion. As there are noted rose-tree 
sellers in all districts the buyer can choose a firm 
judiciously, by the environing circumstances as well as 
business renown, bearing in mind that, except for the 
extra hot, dry, sandy garden, the roses had better have 
been bred in cool nurseries and nourished upon clay. 

When the trees arrive during a severe frost they can 
be left unpacked a few days, if in straw or matting 
wrappers, in a scullery, or not too drying room, on 



ROSE PLANTING 75 

the chance that the wintry spell may give way ; if it 
does not the bundle should be laid down, buried, some- 
where in the garden. It needs courage to consign the 
branches as well as the roots to a tomb, but a foot 
underground, and with some matting, linoleum, or 
newspapers laid over the earth above them, weighted 
down by stones at the corners, they can rest securely 
for three or four weeks if necessary. We do not have 
such prolonged frosts as to involve any lengthier 
delay. 

The question of soil preparation having been con- 
sidered in a former chapter it is only obligatory now 
to remark that in no case must roots touch manure. 
If any is discovered when the hole is dug for planting 
a tree, it should be cast out and some pure loam put 
in for a bottom layer. 

If trenching can be done a month or two previous 
to planting the amalgamation of manure with soil will 
be perfect ; this applies also to manured soil that has 
not had to be trenched. If no ground preparation has 
been done, and the time for rose-planting is drawing 
to a close, or personal causes force the gardener to 
accomplish the job, manure can be put in as a layer 
two or three inches below the roots ; none should be 
mixed with the remaining earth, but a mulch may be 
laid over the surface when the beds or borders are 
finished off. As a rule the mulch is dangerous (but 
more so preceding winter than at winter's close), 
because it chokes the pores of the earth, detains 
moisture, and provides more stimulant than roots can 
do well with when they are but just grasping new 
ground. 

Of course " doctors differ " about soil-preparing for 



76 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

roses, just as on all other subjects, but all agree that 
autumn or spring-planted roses must not receive any 
further feeding for a year. It is easy to kill by kind- 
ness. Chemicals, soot, and animal manures are as bad 
for newly established trees as powerful drugs and food fit 
for adults are for baby children. Even with great care 
growers lose some trees out of hundreds, through the 
roots having come in contact with stuff that over- 
stimulates. The amateur who cannot resist " feeding 
up " her freshly obtained roses will probably see three 
or four out of each dozen die off — as she will think 
unaccountably — in early summer. After a while she 
will be heard to declare that her patronage will not 
be given again to the firm that supplied those trees — 
but the fact will be that she is a benevolent poisoner 
of young roses. 

How deep to plant is a question that often troubles. 
Nearly all roses are sent out budded on some stock, 
and this portion of stock, where the branches spring 
from, should be just below the level of the border on 
a fairly sticky soil, a trifle lower on a gravelly, or 
shifting-sand, soil. But before this arrangement is 
carried out the damaged ends of all roots should have 
been trimmed off, any dead-looking bits removed, all 
solid long roots just tipped, and all roots must have 
been spread out so as to extend well around the hole. 
Firm setting must be managed ; fine loam, neither wet 
nor dry, should be put over the roots and all between 
them, then the coarser soil goes in. Standard, half- 
standard, and big, robust bushes should be given a 
stake each, put in while planting is in progress, and 
trodden in firmly with the trees. A little soil may be 
lightly drawn over the crowns of the dwarfs, to 



ROSE PLANTING jj 

prevent winds and sunshine from drying them. 
Planting should not be undertaken when the ground is 
so wet that the treading necessary pounds it into paste. 
If a droughty time follows spring-planting the roses 
should be given a pailful of water each occasionally. 
Watering in winter is perilous. 

By the time roses are a year old, that is to say, a 
year older since they were located, they begin to need 
feeding specially. There are innumerable ways of 
supplying the food, scientists going by different 
prescriptions, but all of them are good, so the woman 
gardener may take her choice, so long as she avoids 
monotony. Roses should not be given one chemical 
alone for months together, nor a monopoly of soot or 
compound powders, nor liquid animal manure even. 
A March mulch of horse, cow, or mixed farmyard 
manure is excellent. Weak liquid manure, made with 
any of these, or with soot, can be given once a week 
during June, July, and August. Other excellent foods 
are Peruvian guano, or Standen's Manure, half an 
ounce to a square four yards wide, forked in during 
April. Bone meal is beneficial, but acts very slowly. 
There are various special powder or liquid rose manures 
in the market, easy to apply. Clay's Fertilizer can 
be sprinkled in a ring nine inches from the stems of 
dwarfs, eighteen inches from those of giant bushes or 
pillar roses, or half an ounce of it, dissolved in a gallon 
of water, may be applied once or twice a week. Making 
one's own chemical manures up, by prescription, costs 
less. The ingredients are sold either by florists or 
corn and seed merchants. A noted mixture is an 
ounce of superphosphate of lime, half an ounce each 
of sulphate of iron and sulphate of ammonia, to four 



jS EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

gallons of water, given once a month, from April to 
September. The quantity of water mentioned is for 
dissolving the chemicals, not as guide to the amount 
to be applied. 

If the soil is light, the garden a hot one, and the trees 
look fagged out, with dull leaf colour and dryish stalks, 
a reliable help to them will be half an ounce of nitrate 
of soda to one gallon of water, once a week, till the 
flowering season is nearly over. 

Twice a week is enough for extra food to be given 
in liquid form, and a change should be rung on two or 
three, further varied by soot water. Powder manures, 
such as mixed fertilisers, or the above-mentioned 
ingredients of prescriptions, can be scattered, instead 
of used for liquids, when weeks are dripping ones and 
the supply of water consequently ample. Otherwise 
a fact to be written up large in the potting-shed, or 
firmly graven on memory, is that no strong foods must 
be given to dry roses ; unless the soil is wet clear water 
should be applied first. 

Pruning is done in March and April, and is safe during 
the first month for hybrid perpetuals, most hybrid teas, 
and some teas, in southern or warm valley gardens, 
but only for hybrid perpetuals and other robust 
species in gardens of the north or of hill-tops. Wall 
climbers, not ramblers or Wichurianas, on good 
aspects, should receive attention first of any, but they 
do not require cutting much, just the removal of every 
bit of dead wood, the tipping of long branches, or 
occasionally the sacrificing of weak boughs that 
overcrowd. 

Roses planted in autumn or winter have to be cut 
back hard, as if they are allowed to retain their old 



ROSE PLANTING 79 

growth they will suffer for ever after. The scientific 
advice is — cut them back to within two or three 
" eyes." This means generally to within four to six 
inches of the union of branch with stock. The literal 
rule cannot invariably be followed, because an essential 
injunction is to see that the last " eye," or " bud," 
left on a branch faces outwards, so that when a new 
shoot springs from it the growth will be towards the 
garden instead of towards the centre of the tree. 
There would be no harm in leaving only one " eye," 
nor in leaving four or five, rather than risk an over- 
crowded centre. The woman gardener will soon learn 
to judge for herself. Let the cuts be made slanting 
upwards, and very cleanly, just above the " bud." 

Established roses need not be pruned back more 
than to four or six " eyes." It is legitimate art to 
allow some strong trees to grow luxuriantly for garden 
decoration, and make huge stems, then reduce the 
side shoots on these stems. Old-world gardens would 
not have been half as beautiful had all the roses been 
cultivated by modern scientific methods, instead of 
being allowed to ramp aloft and spread out over yards 
of Mother Earth. 

Weakly roses, of any species, are better left un- 
pruned until the middle of April, when the delicate 
teas are done, otherwise nipping winds may destroy 
all the live branch left on them. It usually strikes 
the amateur as queer that weak trees are cut down to 
two or three eyes ; but that is to encourage the roots. 

A noted authority wrote, long ago : " Cut your roses 
close to an eye, by a clean stroke with a sharp knife, 
so as not to tear the bark. Above all, do not leave a 
long snag to die down to the bud ; the hollow left by 



80 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

its pith will serve as the retreat and resting-place of 
the detestable grubs which will destroy your buds." 

Another point to recollect is that if a dwarf has a 
superfluity of branches those cannot all bear good 
roses, nor could the beauty of the flowers be seen if 
they did, therefore a number of boughs must be 
sacrificed, after which all the vigour of the growth will 
flow into the remainder. Standards and half-stand- 
ards must not be permitted to make too full " heads." 

Often dead wood is discoverable a few weeks after 
the trees have been dealt with, and so a further 
pruning has to be done. 

Roses show to great advantage if they can be 
trained out, espalier style, while a useful modification 
of this treatment is the tying out of a few branches to 
the tops of ordinary flower-sticks, just to prevent 
crowding at the heart of a tree. Very vigorous growers, 
such as J. B. Clark, are often pegged down by tying 
the tips to pegs ; this has a graceful appearance, and 
shoots soon spring luxuriantly from the hooped 
boughs. 

Having now learnt the main rules for pruning there 
are some exceptions to be studied. 

Austrian briars, Ayrshire roses, the Scotch rose 
(rosa spinosissima), sweet briars, the Macartney rose 
(rosa bracteata), rosa microphylla, Japanese roses 
(rosa rugosa), may be treated as the climbers, namely, 
tipped only, and relieved of dead wood. The Damask, 
French roses (rosa gallica), the hybrid Chinese, and 
China or monthly roses, like the pleasing old-fashioned 
musk roses, need tojbe pruned back to from six to 
twelve " buds " or " eyes," according to the size of the 
specimen, while the old cabbage rose and the moss 



ROSE PLANTING 81 

rose, on the contrary, must be pruned as hard almost 
as if they were newly-planted hybrid perpetuals, 
hybrid teas, and teas. Noisettes and dwarf polyanthas 
are usually shortened about one third of their long 
shoots, and thinned out, as they make too many weak 
little side branches. Lamentations are continually 
being heard that the beautiful little gold or white 
Banksian roses fail to bloom, whereas they ought to 
cover south walls with splendour early in summer. 
The reason for this failure is that they refuse to blossom 
the following season unless they are pruned directly 
they have done flowering. All the coarse shoots should 
be cut away, and every other shoot should be tipped. 
They often suffer too for want of nourishment, and 
should have cow or pig manure dug lightly into their 
border twice a year, in March and October, then be 
let alone, not dosed with chemicals. 

Lastly, the climbing ramblers and Wichurianas 
must be considered. It is good policy to cut them 
rather hard the first year, to persuade new growth to 
start from the base. In other years the best results 
seem to spring from the removal of a lot of the woody 
branches that have flowered, doing this in autumn, 
then only slightly shortening the most vigorous shoots 
in March. The new wood makes better development, 
so authorities claim and experience goes to prove, if 
the old wood is not left on all winter to steal nutri- 
ment. But, if the gardener prefers, she may leave 
this cutting away until early spring. 

If biting gales, or late frosts, quite destroy the young 
succulent green shoots that roses, pruned too soon for 
the season, have put forth, it is sad, but not tragic. 
Some trees can be cut back to another " eye," others 

G 



82 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

may have the damaged foliage gently rubbed off, and 
soon, as genial days arrive, there will be leafy luxu- 
riance, just as though nothing evil had happened. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Spare the knife, you spoil 
the rose tree." 



CHAPTER IX 

BEDS ON THE LAWN 

" 'Tis like the birthday of the world, 
When earth was born in bloom, 
The light is made of many dyes, 
The air is all perfume. 
There's crimson buds, and white and blue, 
The very rainbow showers 
Have turned to blossoms where they fell, 
And sown the earth with flowers." 

Hood. 

THE lawn may be called, to the garden, what 
the mouth is to the face, the feature of 
chief expression ; still, there may be gardens 
without grass at all, and then all the romance is centred 
elsewhere, as in the eyes of those Eastern belles who 
veil their lips and yet are most expressive. But 
where there is a lawn we all look towards it for 
principal interest. 

Round the lawn the best flowers are usually collected, 
roses or herbaceous beauties, sweet peas or dahlias, 
in wide borders. On the lawn should be the loveliest 
beds of blossom. In this, as in all garden-forming 
operations, individual necessities have first to be met, 
though, so if the grass is required for games, and the 
extent of it is but just adequate, it must be left bare, 
and floral achievements concentrated as close as pos- 
sible, around seats, arbours, and a summer-house, from 
which play may be watched. Happy the owner of a 



84 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

large estate, for she can arrange for the tennis and 
croquet lawns to be farther away, and for a decorative 
lawn to occupy ground within sight of the sitting-room 
windows. 

It is easiest, and generally most successful, to begin 
planning a garden by locating the pleasure-lawn, then 
make paths lead to and about it ; unless the area is 
so limited that it must serve as path itself, and the 
encircling walks would usurp too many golden oppor- 
tunities. This drawing out of the lawn should be 
prepared on paper. Really any draughtswoman with- 
out training can contrive, by means of a tape-measure, 
to concoct a rough plan of the proposed grounds, allow- 
ing a quarter inch to a foot. Defects in construction 
show up boldly, even on the most unprofessional 
map of this species, and so can be avoided ; whereas 
it takes time, money, and patience to alter a faulty 
new-made garden. 

If the lawn is to lie like a still green lake, then it 
will be most attractive if made with rounded ends ; 
sharp corners to a bare grass plot give an unkind 
expression to a garden. A round lawn, set towards 
the house, not quite in the middle of the land, is wonder- 
fully simple to work up from ; an oval is almost as 
pleasing. In one midland garden there is a splendid 
crescent-shaped lawn which, viewed from neighbouring 
hills, lies among the blossom-covered grounds as the 
fabled moon of green cheese. But a freak of this sort, 
quite poetically lovely, can only be possessed within a 
great width of ground. 

After the lawn's own shape has been_ decided, or 
when a flower-cultivator turns to the congenial task 
of ornamenting an old lawn, one that need not do duty 



BEDS ON THE LAWN 85 

as a playing field, outlines have to be chosen for beds 
and borders inside it. Surrounded by temptations 
to attempt too much, bewildered by countless antagon- 
istic bits of advice, let her follow personal fancy, so 
long as she beware of over-elaboration, " dottiness/' 
monotony, or ostentation. Who would not rather 
see a round bed of mixed plants, for instance, in the 
little grass-plot of a cottage, than some intricately 
shaped and carpet-bedded star ? How ridiculous 
one tiny round bed alone would look on a great grass 
expanse ! " Dottiness " would be exhibited if the 
fine lawn were given a superfluity of small beds instead 
of just a stately one or two, and a series of handsome 
groups. Monotony can be on a large or a small scale ; 
it occurs when all the beds are alike, or the same width 
and length, unless this is purposely contrived in the 
formation of a formal plan, a kind of Dutch gardening. 
It is possible, of course, to have beds identical, and 
render them utterly dissimilar by the subjects grown 
in them ; nobody could complain of four square beds 
looking monotonous that were filled respectively with 
roses, pansies, shrubs, and delphiniums. Ostenta- 
tion is witnessed when all the beds are of very cut-out, 
peaked, curved, or composite shapes, or all filled with 
but the costliest exotics, or such stupendous devices 
in flower and foliage that they advertise the skill of 
the plant-torturer, but not the exquisiteness of leaf 
or bloom. 

Cutting a bed is almost too easy, whether the tool 
used is a regulation cutter or an old table-knife. 
Though it is feasible to relay turf from a place it has 
been mistakenly dragged from, seams and damage 
remain visible some time after, so prudence should 



86 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

dictate the site for a lawn bed, as well as the size and 
contour. 




Fig. 12. Five-pointed Star Bed. Fig. 13. Lawn-corner Bed. 





Fig. 14. Six-pointed Star Bed. Fig, 15. Banner Bed. 

Rounded lawns, those with soft curves, instead of 
acute angles or straight sides, should, as a rule, be 
ornamented by beds of rounded outlines also ; stars 



BEDS ON THE LAWN 87 

are, maybe, an exception to the law, on account of 
their invariable grace. Preference might be given to 
one of an irregular number of points, as less severe in 
character than the one of equal dimensions. Examples 
of a five-pointed and a six-pointed star are given in 
Figs. 12 and 14, and the scantiest scrutiny shows 
that an uneven number of " rays " make for 
elegance. The six-rayed star demands to be set in a 
square or oblong small grass plot, or at the ends, 
sides, or corners of a large one. Fig. 13 is especially 




Fig. 16. The Scroll Bed. 

suitable for fitting into a corner ; Fig. 15, the banner 
bed, may be placed on a strip lawn, or be one of a pair 
at a lawn end, to be doubly arched between. 

When standard roses are set, in the familiar fashion, 
to surround a lawn at its edges, the little beds contain- 
ing a tree each should not be all rounds, but of as many 
shapes as. the mind can invent. Diamonds, crosses, 
crescents, hearts, clubs, fans, bars, half hoops, comets, 
triangles all are of service, and none, on so diminutive 
a scale, can be out of keeping with the contour of a 
grass expanse large enough to be thus embellished. 
Flower or leaf-shapes, either big or small, are a refine- 
ment of fancy, and deserve commendation accordingly. 



88 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 





Fig. 17. A Leaf -shaped Bed. Fig. 18. The Tudor Rose Bed. 





Fig, 19. A Flower-shaped Bed. Fig. 20. A Fancy Leaf Bed. 





Fig. 21 The Ivy-leaf Bed. Fig 22. The Cornflower Bed 



BEDS ON THE LAWN 89 

Just as we ought to go to Nature for colourings, for 
dress, rooms, and gardens, so should we invite her to 
teach us shapes in ornament, as she has been willing 
to do for countless ages, long before great architect- 
sculptors rejoiced in the perfectness of amaranth 
leaves, pineapple domes, and lily spires. The 
Figures 17 to 22 represent the outside shapes of 
different blooms and leaves, most of which will be 
quickly recognised. The scroll shape, Fig. 16, makes 
a charming bed for violas or begonia semperflorens, 
primroses, yellow or many tinted, or the gay-hued 
purslanes (portulacas) which must not be sown 
until May, but then spring up rapidly ; it also is a 
delight as a giant bed of medium tall flowers, such as 
sweet Williams, or can be kept for dwarf polyantha 
roses. If towering plants fill it the undulating shape 
is lost. Some of the floral or foliage-shaped beds lend 
themselves to agreeable conceits that cannot be legiti- 
mately condemned as too imitative ; if Fig. 19 is 
carried out in white low-growing flowers, and given a 
tuft of green or yellow in the middle, it will look just 
like a big flower itself shed upon the lawn ; the Tudor 
rose, Fig. 18, can be made pink, with a green eye, and 
a ring of yellow to resemble stamens ; Fig. 20, if all 
gold, just tipped with crimson, will suggest a fallen 
maple leaf of autumn ; Fig. 22 can be royal blue as 
the cornflower from which its outline was adapted. 

The double egg design, Fig. 23, will be found useful 
in numerous positions ; made twelve feet broad, and 
given a pillar rose in the neighbouring grass, opposite 
the inward points, it may form the nucleus of a rosery. 
Fig. 24 is the shape of many a petal ; Fig. 25 gives 
a slender border bed, useful for cutting in a strip of turf. 



go EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 




Fig. 23. The Two Egg Flower Bed. 




Fig. 24. The Petalshaped Bed. 




Fig. 25. A useful Narrow Border. 




BEDS ON THE LAWN 91 

Groups of lawn beds need not be individually, or 
collectively, of mathematical proportions. Figures 26 
and 27 show two groups of beds making flower shapes, 
while Fig. 28 is an illustration of a " wild," and Fig. 29 
of a formal group. The amateur landscape gardener 
need not trouble in the least with measuring tapes, pegs 
to mark outlines, and calculations of inches, if she 
happens to appreciate seemingly unstudied effects. 

V 

Fig. 26. Fig. 27. 

Grouped Beds in Flower Shapes. 

Let her keep to curves, avoid angles as though they 
were poisonous, then dig out the beds with due regard 
to their size with respect to the grass plot, and a multi- 
tude of waves in and waves out. Those marked in 
Fig. 28 would please the eye, whether given up to 
roses or divided between perennials and annuals, 
tall and short. One, by-the-bye, might be a bed of 
mixed lilies and montbretias, a second devoted to a 
lavender bush carpeted by purple pansies, a third to 
chrysanthemums, a fourth to rhododendrons edged 
by heathers. 

The motive of the design on Fig. 29 is the turning 
of a surplus grass plot into a symmetrical flower 
garden. The round beds, if of considerable diameter, 
would be valuable for displaying dahlias, the side 



92 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 




Fig. 28. Informal Bed Groups. 




Fig. 29. A Formal Parterre. 



BEDS ON THE LAWN 



93 









Fig. 30. A Group of Round Beds. 

beds could be backed by hedges of sweet peas and then 
filled up by chrysanthemums for autumn, and hybrid 




Fig. 31. An Elegant Group of Beds. 

pyrethrums and columbines for spring ; while the 
other rounds, of two sizes, could accommodate a 
delphinium each and a tree fuchsia respectively. 



94 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

A group of squares or oblongs, Fig. 32, will need 
clever planting to compensate the spectator for the 
aggressive corners. With shrubs or giant plants 
massed in the middle of each bed, lower ones round, 
the appearance would not be too angular, nor would it 
if climber-mounted arches spanned the turf from corner 




Fig. 32. A useful Group of Plain Beds. 



to corner. The six round beds in a group, Fig. 30, 
have so pleasing a result, no matter their size or the 
stature of their occupants, that one wonders why they 
are so rarely met with. 

Originality has always one merit. No sour philoso- 
pher can contravene that fact. When a lawn is too 
long — a defect so often noticeable in a garden of strip 
shape — its ends should be turned into flowery places, 



BEDS ON THE LAWN 



95 



and the view of the improvement from the upper 
windows of the house ought to be carefully thought 
over. If the beds are cut of ugly shapes there will be 
a heaviness of aspect to regret ; if they are common- 




Fig. 33. A Group of Three Beds. 

place they will not delight from that distance, although 
the blossoms in them may enrapture the near scrutin- 




Fig. 34. A Pair of Flower Beds. 

iser. Novelty is nowhere more needed, so the illus- 
trations, Figures 31 to 41, are offered. Some of them 
are suited to lawn sides, but all tell out strikingly 
along lawn ends. Fig. 34 cries out for two arches to 



96 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

[\ 





Fig- 35- -^ Bed for a Lawn's End. 





Vi 




Fig. 36. A Bed for finishing a^Lawn. 




V~V 




Fig. 37. The Diamond Lawn Bordering. 




Fig. 38. The Scroll Lawn Bordering. 



BEDS ON THE LAWN 97 

span the ends of the diamond patch of turf that would 
be left between the beds ; Figs. 31 and 33 make admir- 
able rose beds. Fig. 37 is too peaky for its shape to be 




Fig. 39. The Continuous Lawn Border. 

visible unless it holds low plants only. The scroll, or 
waved ribbon, Fig. 38, was tried most successfully, only 
two feet wide, for a centre row of carnations, edged by 
violas. Fig. 39 is intended to enfold the entire width 




Fig. 40. A Semi-Circle for Flowers. 

of the lawn it improves, or the detached beds shown 
at Fig. 41 might just as well be a complete framework 
to grass, except for gaps needed as paths. 




Fig. 41. Beds to repeat for a Border. 

All that is novel is not fair ? No, but when the 
materials of the original thing are grass and flowers 
the chances are that beauty will reign. The zealous 
gardener, when aiming at astonishing her neighbours, 
will surely never forget that a certain tenderness of 

H 



98 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 
treatment is demanded as tribute to our myriad- 
tinted earth-stars ? Colour is a subject yet to be 




Fig/ 42. An Original Lawn Group. 

pondered upon : suffice it to suggest now that a bizarre- 
shaped bed, or group of beds, loses half the due effect 




Fig. 43. AXlassic Group for a Lawn. 



BEDS ON THE LAWN 99 

if given all the shades of the paint-box. The semi- 
crown beds of Fig. 42, could not be criticised as " bad 
art " if made up of all golden flowers, while in white 
they would suggest a diamond tiara, or in flaming 
orange-vermilion seem to be borrowing a tint from 
the dying sun. Mixed colours used for them would 
take away their dignity. The group, Fig. 43, is of 
most classic outline. 

What a broad hobby it is, the making of a beautiful 
garden ! Summers come and summers go, leaving 
us still bent on contriving some year to be able to sit 
down in peace and cry : " C'est fini ! " 

But we are too fortunate. There is no real fear 
of the flower-lover ever being satiated with successes. 
Dandelions are not more perennial than her ambitions, 
nor is bindweed more spreading. 

Gardening Proverb. — " First cut your bed, then fill 
it." 



CHAPTER X 

SHRUBS AND SHRUBBERY-BUILDING 

" I felt a certain sensation of pleasure, as I always do when 
successfully battling with a difficulty." — From a letter of Ludvig 
von Beethoven. 

THE noble phrase of the great composer of 
music is applicable to the feelings of the 
woman who has planted well a large shrub- 
bery. It is a work, if not for all time, at least for more 
years than she need reckon : if properly performed 
this once it will never displease, unlike a symphony 
or sonata that must depend upon future interpreters. 
But if a shrubbery has not been creditably built — 
what then ? It can be grubbed up ; but shrubberies 
seldom are. 

Shrubs a garden must contain. Herbaceous plants 
are not enough as height producers, since they die down 
for winter, and rose trees become bare, or almost so. 
In the midst of a private park even there will be tramps 
and errand boys to screen the lawns from. 

Nothing could be more commendable than making 
an exquisite secluded garden, then admitting all 
strangers to it on given festivals, or early-closing half- 
holidays ; but the seclusion is as honourable a possession 
as a Gainsborough or Raphael in the drawing-room. 
And if the nobly-planned garden must have its shelter- 
ing shrubberies from the few, must not the roadside 



SHRUBS AND SHRUBBERY-BUILDING 101 

villa infallibly have its leafy screens from the multi- 
tude ? Granted it is possible to hide away the private 
Eden without planting a single shrub : but what cart- 
loads of earth will be needed for banks, what costly 
quantities of planks for fences, or bricks for walls ! 

Shrubs, not fantastically clipped, have a poetic 
charm all their own. All gardens ought to be poetic, 
and as there are comic poems, and vers de societe, 
fanciful little triolets and lyrics, as well as sonnets 
and epics, so there may be gay, humorous, coquettish 
small pleasaunces, as also serious and majestic 
ones. 

It shall be acknowledged at once that women 
gardeners, non-professional, are terribly unacquainted 
with shrubs : annuals they have patronised since the 
daj^s of childhood, when Virginian stock was most 
valued because it came up best, and with perennials 
they may have a respectably large bowing apprecia- 
tion, albeit rather hazy as to names ; but of the 
families, kinships, and racial characteristics of shrubs 
they are most woefully ignorant. Yet shrubs are not 
a tithe the trouble or expense of bedding plants and 
those rapid-rising summer prettinesses which have 
to be burnt at the fall of the leaf. 

The back garden may be as visibly in need of shrub- 
beries as the front garden. So often boundaries are 
marked out by low walls, or open railings, and if this 
is not the case there is sure to be some ugly spectacle 
to hide. Dustbins, coal-cellars and other outbuildings, 
drying-greens, or the mere clothes-line, manure-pits, 
stables, the galvanised shed, the stoke-hole, are but 
instances of the obtrusive inelegancies which here and 
there call for screening. Undoubtedly a stable, or 



102 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

garage, may be a beautiful bit of building, but archi- 
tects who bear this in mind are not general. 

A straight line of shrubs against a paling is far from 
praiseworthy, though not absolutely spoiling to a 
garden if the shrubs are of different species, heights, 
shapes, and colours, but it is in such a position that 
shrubberies become the highest type of art — that which 
is of service to man as well as intrinsically lovely. 

Perhaps the first attempt at shrubbery building 
had better imitate a wide and shallow cave ; the 
heaviest-hued and most solid evergreens may form 
the outer shell, the lining may be of gold or silver 
evergreens, and in the protecting hollow of these can 
nestle flowering specimens, the daintier veronicas, 
azaleas, mountain sweets, rock-roses, and bush honey- 
suckles — can the reader supply the Latin titles for 
the three last ? — ceanothuses, cistuses, and weigelas. 
Some dwarf shrubs must struggle to the foreground, 
for the cave-shape should not be of hard outline ; the 
plants of the border, whether bulbous, bedding, annual, 
or perennial, ought to mingle with them. 

A series of cave-like groups down by the paling would 
not please at all, the eye would weary of them ; but the 
gardener by this time will have understood the principle 
of the scheme, and will be eager to invent masses for 
herself, as relief against the background. Any simple 
device aids — a triangle of mock orange trees can 
surround bushes of gorse and the crimson-and-gold 
broom (genista Andreana) ; a trio of lilacs, red- 
purple, mauve, and white, may jut out in a straight 
line to the border's edge, from a double row of varie- 
gated laurels ; a vandyke of firs will afford variety, 
and a crimson rambler rose, on a very tall pole, would 



SHRUBS AND SHRUBBERY-BUILDING 103 

gloriously fill up the vacancy between them. Many a 
time it becomes advisable to employ pillars, or towering 
espaliers, for climbing roses, clematises, hops, bell- 
binds, honeysuckles, ivies, Virginian creepers, or 
ornamental fruiting brambles, in new shrubberies. 
The final effect will be magnificently luxuriant, sug- 
gestive of tropical thickets ; the gain, while the shrubs 
are growing inch by inch, can scarcely be over-estimated. 

Another fact to bear in mind is that tender shrubs, 
which are often the most attractive, can be so hedged 
around by valiant gale and frost-impeding evergreens 
that they can safely occupy an otherwise open border. 
This shrubbery should face south or south-west. 

Where space is almost too ample, and keeping the 
garden in good order is a regretted expense, an exceed- 
ingly wide belt of ground may wisely be shrubbed over 
and flanked by a walk of grass or gravel on each side. 
In the centre, but not rigidly restricted to the middle, 
may come groups of some of the tallest shrubs known, 
with specimen trees, or even lengths of tree-hedges, 
all to show up the medium and the low shrubs of the 
borderings. And trees are ludicrously cheap ! Silver 
weeping birches, seven feet high, are four shillings a 
dozen, golden poplars tenpence a-piece, sycamores one 
shilling, the Douglas fir (abies Douglassi), the familiar 
thuja gigantea, or Lawson's cypress, about the same 
price when of five-foot stature. Here, among quantities 
of variegated euonymuses and glossy common laurels, 
may rise the lovely laburnums, hawthorns, acacias, 
double-flowering cherries, and almond trees that are 
now ill-treated by being repeated ad nauseam in the 
front plots of suburban villas. An edging of London 
pride, mossy saxifrage, white or mauve rock-cress 



104 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

(arabis), or pinks, will be quite sufficient to hold in the 
soil of the shrubbery border adjoining gravel ; if turf 
is neighbour there will be no need for even that edging. 
Tiles or rocks can be dispensed with in either case. 
Certainly this is the least costly way of making a great 
garden well furnished, and eye-gratifying at all seasons. 

Shrubberies, too, instead of shrub lines or hedges, 
may exist in the front of the house, and if the border 
by the railing is too narrow to hold anything else there 
are dwarf shrubs suitable for nestling at the feet of the 
others — rosemary, the daisy-tree (Olearia Haastii), the 
golden-petalled, red-stamened rose of Sharon (hyperi- 
cum Moserianum), the Spanish gorse that makes amber 
cushions, rock roses, and the flesh-coloured heath 
(erica herbacea carnea). 

Improving an old overgrown shrubbery means hav- 
ing some of the veterans dug out, new soil as well as 
manure added to the holes left, and the introduction 
of fresh beauty of leaf or blossom. If the general mass 
is too low the white broom (cytisus albus) is a fairy-like 
tree, of most elegant habit, to locate at irregular inter- 
vals ; variegated Japanese honeysuckle, supported 
by stout props, will look bright year in year out, or a 
Japanese quince (pyrus japonica) can be given two 
ten-foot bamboo poles to mount between. 

At the sides of houses, between kitchen doors and 
the back lawns, shrub masses are often more satis- 
factory than plants, because they better resist the cold 
draughts that blow through alleys. Then, too, semi- 
circular groups by the grass will do much to screen 
it from the tradesman's entrance. Striking effects 
are easy to gain by congregating all gold or all silver- 
variegated shrubs together ; other collections may be 



SHRUBS AND SHRUBBERY-BUILDING 105 

of shrubs and trees that put on autumn tints, as do 
barberries, maples, and the robust Japanese roses 
(rosa rugosa), or berry-bearers of the hawthorn, fire- 
thorn, and snowberry type. Flowering shrubs may 
be associated for matching colours also — not every- 
where, but for a change. The yellow tree lupin, 
golden brooms and gorse, roses of Sharon, Jews' mallow 
(kerria japonica), golden chain (laburnum), Jerusalem 
sage (phlomis fruticosa), the pretty little potentillas 
Friedrichsenii and fruticosa, the yellow variety of 
American currant (ribes aureum), and rue will combine 
charmingly. 

Pinkish blossoming shrubs comprise the Japanese 
rose, hawthorns, double and single, the spray bush 
(spiraea), Anthony Waterer, tree paeonies, hydrangeas, 
escallonias, bush honeysuckle (weigela rosea), and 
several named mountain sweets, notably Ceres and 
Albert Pettet. Naturally a white shrubbery is sim- 
plest of all to build, with mock-oranges, lilac, spray 
bushes, deutzias, which seem to be without an English 
title, the New Jersey tea plant (ceanothus Americanus), 
rock roses, carpenteria, of delicious scent, lilac, privet, 
the daisy trees, the tall heather-like f abiana imbricata, 
prunus pissardii, that blooms on maroon stems among 
claret leaves in early spring, veronica traversii, and the 
snowy variety of tree lupin. 

Rare shrubs are not always costly ; white blooming 
lavender is sure to be admired, indeed it has a most 
fascinating appearance when well covered by its deli- 
cate wheat-shaped bloom spikes ; there is a grand 
carmine-blotched mock orange (philadelphus lemoinei 
purpureo maculata), a sumach that has scarlet- 
flushed foliage in autumn (rhus glabra laciniata), 



io6 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

more like a majestic fern than a shrub, a hardy blue 
mountain sweet (ceanothus dentatus), a blue, instead 
of an orange, golden ball (buddleia variabilis), suited 
to sheltered nooks, a white American currant, the blos- 
som purple centred, the fruits turning black after 
vermilion (ribes glaciale), a pink deutzia, and a blush, 
and a deeper rose, Japanese quince. 

The matter of shrubbery-building cannot be dis- 
missed without mention being made of the feathery, 
pink-bloom covered tamarisks gallicajaponica plumosa, 
and odessana, that flourish so well in coast gardens, 
where they make ideal hedges, or can be associated 
for perfect charm in groups with various heathers, 
white and gold broom, silver foliage shrubs, and the 
steel-blue, spiny, thistle-like perennial sea-hollies 
(eryngiums amethystinum, azureum, and oliverianum), 
and the equally prickly-looking globe thistles of similar 
grey-blue shades (echinops giganteus, e. bannaticus), 
and the white member of that family, the five-foot 
cone thistle (echinops sphcerocephalus). These will 
all succeed in light sandy soil, though they take kindly 
to heavy ground ; the red stems of the fern-resembling 
tamarisks can be bowed nearly to the earth, and set 
lashing one another musically by ocean gales, yet will 
take no harm ; the heathers may look stunted and 
dried for months, but directly sunshine warms them 
all their vitality becomes visible again. 

Shrubs can be employed in those tracts that must 
be economically furnished without the admixture of 
manure in the under soil ; if given mulches- — once or 
twice a year — the result will be sufficiently decorative. 
It is, however, by growers on rich, deep ground that 
the most splendid floral displays and best fruit crops 



SHRUBS AND SHRUBBERY-BUILDING 107 

are obtained. Variegated evergreens do not need 
much nutriment ; an excess of manure may turn them 
all green again. The golden privet is proof often of 
how green shades creep over other coloured leaves 
in too-nourishing garden borders. 

Rhododendrons are less planted than they should 
be in large gardens. Years ago it was the custom to 
cover big areas of private parks with them, to which 
fact we are now indebted for some of our most noted 
country features, but to-day fashion runs in favour 
of mingled shrubberies, which can never be expected 
to yield so attention-riveting a splendour. And 
where there is no particular amount of lime in the soil 
rhododendrons luxuriate as freely as does the common 
laurel anywhere. 

Hardy azaleas, heathers, and lilies of important 
species are grand for rilling openings between rhodo- 
dendrons, as they love the same peaty ground, or the 
pure turfy loam, in which lime is unrecognisable. 
Ferns, too, with the common bracken, for its autumnal 
hues, should be admitted to their company. 

Shrub-planting is usually done in October and Nov- 
ember, or March and April, the two former months 
for the hardy kinds, the two latter for those that are 
delicate; but most evergreens can be moved safely 
at any time during winter, if the ground is not 
frost hardened. The chief error to avoid is loose 
planting. If there are cavities among or below the 
roots, or the next tempest can sway the newly-planted 
shrub so as to loosen it in the ground, then the fibrous 
roots — which, by-the-bye, may be trimmed, like rose 
roots, but should never be broken off or bruised — 
cannot establish a hold, and the specimen will die. 



108 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Stakes must be made use of in wind-swept localities ; 
the treading in round the trunk, or stem masses, must 
be so heavy that, for several feet of circumference, the 
earth is well hardened. Hollies should be planted in 
May. 

Sometimes the careless jobbing gardener will throw 
up a bank of inverted turves and plant shrubs on the 
summit, all in the same week. As a turf-stack has to 
heat, like a stack of too-green hay, the roots of the 
shrubs are sure to be burnt, and a line of shrivelled 
brown foliage must result. Such a bank should have 
crushed lime put in, a thick sprinkling, between each 
layer of turves, and not be planted in for at least six 
weeks. 

A hint or two must not be omitted as to the value 
of glades among shrubs. We have already seen how 
stately lilies, the golden-rayed queen of Japan, pure 
Madonna lilies, Turk's caps of vermilion or gold, 
pink lilium speciosum, spotted " tigers," can accom- 
pany heaths and rhododendrons. Whole alleys, 
in ordinary shrubberies, can be paved with primroses, 
bluebells, hosts of brilliant or pale anemones, white 
woodruff, the perpetual May-blooming tulips, native 
daffodils and orchis, lilies-of-the-valley, starry yellow 
winter aconites, rich purple or crimson pansies, old- 
world white, rose, or cerise-red double daisies, bluish 
periwinkles, with clusters of taller plants, such as white 
and coloured foxgloves, plantain lilies (funkias), the 
Siberian saxifrage (saxifraga cordifolia) that sends up 
massive pink spikes from great leaves in earliest March, 
purple honesty, fair in blossom boughs or. when the 
outer husks fall and reveal the seed-vessels' silver 
" money " lining, sweet rockets, of palest peach mauve, 



SHRUBS AND SHRUBBERY-BUILDING 109 

deep violet-blue monkshood, Canterbury bells of pink, 
lavender, purple, violet, blue, white, or heliotrope, 
sword-leaved German irises, snapdragons, columbines, 
and sweet Williams of every conceivable hue. 

Gardening Proverb.—" As you make your shrubbery 
so must you see it." 



CHAPTER XI 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS 



" Here are bowers 
Hung with flowers, 
Richly curtain'd halls for you." 

George Darley. 

AFTER a flower has had a tremendous vogue 
it is less grown by the amateur. There may 
be several reasons to explain this, but one 
is that culture for exhibition is carried on at extra- 
ordinary labour and cost, through a system of rivalry. 
The home gardener, who does not wish to put into the 
soil cartloads of every known manure, elects to stand 
aside and let florists have it all their own way, or be 
competed with by wild and wealthy enthusiasts, or head 
men on famed estates who can command endless 
resources. Another deterring factor to the amateur's 
patronage of a too-popular blossom is that the plant, 
through over-breeding and much coddling or stimulat- 
ing, becomes a " tetchy " one to handle. Seeds prove 
so capricious that disappointments are certain ; seed- 
lings may attain maturity only to die off through 
inherited diseases that the original hearty stock of the 
same species never so much as threatened. 

The sweet pea of to-day is really very capricious. 
One hears constantly of crops failing, being devastated 
by " streak " or other sicknesses and pests ; yet almost 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS hi 

as often simple, unsophisticated gardeners boast of 
tremendous triumphs for which they scarcely made a 
bid. Sweet peas we must have ; no garden is complete 
without them, and no other blossoms can compensate 
the house vases for a dearth of these, so we must make 
sure of obtaining the best seed — which means best- 
grown and stored, not of newest varieties — and con- 
tent ourselves with giving the plant the sane culture 
under which it seldom fails. 

After all, are the exhibition sprays any lovelier for 
having stems of a width for which Nature never intended 
them ? Are not the forms and colours of sweet peas 
their legitimate beauties, that are actually accompanied 
by more grace when the blooms are of medium size ? 
During the last year or two scientists in horticulture 
have sensibly striven after increasing the number of 
blooms in a spray, rather than the size of the individual 
bloom, otherwise the wit was not far wrong who 
prophesied that ultimately there would be only one 
pea, as large as a paeony, on the summit of a twenty- 
foot long and three-inch wide stem ! 

The old-established and all the reliable seed firms 
send out seed they can recommend for " domestic " 
culture, as well as the " chancy " seeds, one, two, or 
perhaps three in a costly packet, from which prodigious 
market successes may arise. It is a good plan to write 
and order " the best varieties for cutting, in salmon, 
orange, scarlet, pink, crimson, white, yellow, maroon, 
blue, pale and dark, mauve and violet, with half a 
dozen pretty mixtures of tint." Then the burden of 
selection will rest on the shoulders most able to sustain 
it. Failing this method, the woman gardener can order, 
without much risk, varieties that are two or more years 



ii2 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

old. A third plan is to buy some noted firm's " special 
mixed " sweet peas, only this prevents any creation 
of delightful colour harmonies in beds and borders. 

All honour to those seedsmen who print clear des- 
criptions of varieties in their catalogues, honestly 
mentioning those which are chiefly for exhibition — even 
noting the number of flowers to be expected on a 
spray ! Truly they put their trade knowledge at the 
service of the amateur, and by so doing deserve her 
gratitude. 

For the benefit, however, of the sweet pea lover who 
wishes to make a personal choice among varieties that 
prove healthy in almost all beds and borders, that come 
fairly exact from seed, that represent the best " selfs " 
and blends, a list is appended to this chapter. 

Adequately dug and enriched land, in sun, semi- 
shade, or, for certain purposes, total shade, will do for 
lathyrus odoratus, which is the classic title of the scented 
pea ; and for what is meant by " adequately dug and 
enriched " the reader is referred to previous recipes 
for ground preparation. Without wishing to gain 
exhibition monsters she will, of course, want sprays 
that can honestly be called fine, so a few days before 
she plants out seedlings, or sows seed, she had better 
scatter half an ounce of superphosphate of lime, and 
half an ounce of sulphate of potash, mixed together, 
to every two yards square of soil, then gently fork this 
in so that it is no longer all on the top, but amalgam- 
ated with the first twelve inches of the ground. So 
much depends upon the subsoil too, even of deeply- 
prepared borders, so much on the climate, the amount 
of dampness in the air, the dryings caused by winds, 
the force of sun-heat, that it is possible the young peas 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS 113 

may not grow vigorously enough in spite of the kind- 
ness already shown them. In that event, when they 
are two feet high, thinking of budding, they should 
be given a dose of nitrate of soda, one ounce dis- 
solved for some hours previous to use in two gallons 
of water, and that should soon make them look 
luscious. 

Authorities have long been owning that simple cul- 
ture makes for health in sweet peas, and have envied 
the achievements of cottagers who, on March-forked 
beds, dressed only with soot, have reared flowers fit 
for prize-winning, on diseaseless, ten-foot haulms. 
All agree that the use of the hoe over the land, the 
giving of bucketsful of water in drought times, work 
marvels in encouraging the good growth that ensures 
a magnificent harvest. 

What an adaptable plant it is ! It can be sown in 
autumn in the garden, to stand the winter, or raised 
quickly in a slightly-warmed greenhouse in February 
or March, if the seedlings can be moved to airy eyries 
against top glass, or into cold frames. Many growers 
sow in pots in cold frames in January, putting mats over 
to keep out frost. From February onwards sowings 
are advisable out of doors, to furnish a succession of 
bloom. Now there are also winter-blooming sweet 
peas, that place within the reach of greenhouse owners 
the ecstasy of sweet pea sheaves all the year round. 

A new controversy has arisen among the trade 
enthusiasts — it is as to the best means for persuading 
sweet pea seeds to swell, and sprout, and so cast their 
shells. The chipping or paring of the shell at one end 
is now a trick thoroughly believed in, whereas formerly 
nobody tried any plan but soakings in tepid water 

1 



H4 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

for twelve hours. Next it was claimed that a twenty- 
four hours' bath was needed, and it was truly remarked 
that too often the water was allowed to become cold. 
At the beginning of 1914 these scientific horticulturists 
are seriously recording the various measures of success 
that have rewarded the immersion of seed in very hot 
water — yes, positively of water brought to the boil. 
There is another experiment they might try, the 
addition to the merely tepid water of a few grains of 
carbonate of soda to the saucerf ul. This has proved the 
best and safest softener of that hard epidermis of the 
shell that often seems to present an unbreakable prison 
to the germ of life. The practice is as efficacious with 
the seeds that have given the canna the name of Indian 
shot. 

Seeds sown in boxes may be placed an inch and a 
half or two inches apart, and three-quarters of an inch 
deep. A five-inch pot may hold five seeds. A single 
seed to a three-inch pot is a nice method when 
sowing is done during autumn of stock to be potted 
on and kept in frames or unheated greenhouses, but 
there is no need to be so particular over spring sowings. 
True, potsful of plants cause interlaced roots, but in 
planting out a seedling it is excellent to spread its 
rootlets to all sides, just as though it were a rose tree 
or shrub, and this cannot be done if the baby sweet 
pea is sedulously transplanted with an unbroken ball 
of soil. 

Outdoor sowings for a hedge or ornamental clump 
require seeds at only six-inch intervals ; sowings in 
groups or rows, for gaining specially large blossom, 
may be restricted to nine-inch intervals. When single 
plants are wanted, one to each bamboo, three seeds 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS 115 

are generally sown, to allow for some not germinating, 
and any surplus seedlings are removed while young. 

The compost for boxes and pots of seed should be 
only sweet loam with about a fifth part of silver sand. 
Planting out is usually begun at the end of March, 
but northern dwellers would do well to " wait a wee " 
if cold threatens, or a late winter may make it advis- 
able to postpone operations even in the south. Snow- 
falls many inches deep have characterised past Lady- 
days. Outdoor sowings should be only half an inch 
under the surface. If mice abound seeds have to be 
rolled in red lead while damp or in paraffin, before being 
sown, but the use of many mouse-traps near is advis- 
able, as the mischievous creatures eat the infant 
plants. Sunflower seed, stuck on moistened bread, 
makes a catching bait. Planting-out work can con- 
tinue until the middle of May. 

By providing each seedling with a couple of nice little 
twig supports at planting time the gardener, if excep- 
tionally busy, can defer placing the taller faggots 
until the precious spring weeks have advanced further. 
These twiggy "tops " should be set one on each side 
of the plant. 

The custom of pinching out the top shoots of sweet 
pea seedlings that do not appear to be " breaking at 
the base," therefore show no promise of becoming 
bushy, is another item of culture upon which authorities 
are not agreed ; it undoubtedly delays the flowering 
season. There is much to be said in favour of letting 
a plant grow as tall as will suit the situation, and then 
" stopping " it. Plenty of water, and some liquid 
manure, will probably set side shoots growing strongly, 
and from these very late harvests will be gathered. 



n6 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

When seedlings are to be looked for in the open 
ground the rows or clumps should have black cotton 
twisted backwards and forwards above them, on six- 
inch sticks, or else birds will eat the sweet young 
vegetation. If slugs abound soot should be scattered, 
not over the hidden growth, but so round it all that 
any marauder must trail through a line of it. In the 
worst slug-infested garden the better method of pro- 
tection is to make ridges of lime right along outside 
rows, or encircling clumps, only three or four inches 
distant. 

As to watering, too much care is as disastrous as 
too little ; though light overhead sprinklings help 
growth it is to be hoped that rainfalls about once a 
week or so will provide the root moisture at this season. 
When June sets in hot and dry — or indeed during any 
May drought — a soaking every third day becomes 
essential, although artificial deluges are chilling. 
When possible, rain water should be used ; failing that, 
water fresh from the main. Sometimes peas nearly 
refuse to climb, lurch forward, or stray backwards ; 
clustering-in-a-tangle peas are just as vexatious. 
The sole remedy is tying the tendrils and stems where 
they ought to be. The position of the sun, the drawing 
influence of a wall or fence, or exposure to a draught 
may be to blame. 

Overhead sprinkling must be stopped as soon as 
buds show the least colour, or will harm them as showers 
never do. This is the stage at which extra feeding 
may be given if it is believed to be necessary. A 
sprinkling of soot or compound fertiliser is often given 
to the surface of the ground, or superphosphate of 
lime may be so employed, a quarter ounce to every 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS 117 

six or seven feet square of soil. Liquids made with 
animal manures are relied on almost wholly by some 
cultivators, and are given twice a week, in so weak a 
mixture that the water is scarcely coloured. This is 
not the stage for nitrate of soda, except for any 
individual plants that are backward as to haulm. 
If haulm is too rampant, fleshy and green, or in all 
cases where the sweet peas ought to be budding well 
on the strong plants, but aren't, there is a powerful 
remedy. This is the salt called phosphate of potash. 
If half an ounce is dissolved thoroughly in four gallons 
of water, and applied once, the floral development 
will be greatly hastened and its quantity and quality 
increased. But let the woman gardener recollect that 
no tree, shrub, or plant should ever receive stimulating 
food or liquid when its roots are dry. A soaking with 
plain water must precede doses of any sort, unless the 
skies have done the preparatory work. Lots of 
growers sneer at users of the water-can before July 
is well in, and undoubtedly it would be a mercy if 
the danger of chill wettings could be obviated ; how- 
ever, sweet peas that are let alone in early droughts 
become wiry and often start blossoming miserably 
when about half a yard high. Culture for exhibiting 
at late shows may require avoidances, as well as methods, 
that the culture for garden adornment does not entail. 
It is prettier to keep the hedges and clumps freshly 
grey-green, than to let them become hot-weather 
dried in order that they may respond more, in the blos- 
som-line, when feeding and watering is at last indulged 
in. One practice of prize-seekers can be recommended 
to the amateur, that is the removal young of all lateral 
shoots that are likely to cause overcrowding, for it is 



n8 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

better to have spread-out branches blooming finely 
than a dense body of feeble growth. When a plant 
is poor it should have all buds picked off it for some 
weeks, until its stamina has improved. 

Disease may attack the simply-nurtured plants. 
If they turn yellow insect pests may be to blame, 
those legions of below and above soil foes that are 
treated of in another chapter ; but if on examination 
the leaves are found to have pale tawny lines in them, 
the shoot-tops to be curling, and the stems to be marked 
with brown, the gardener may feel sure that she is 
confronted by the infectious malady, streak. There 
is no cure. All such suffering plants should be dug 
right up and burnt at a distance, the immediate area 
of ground receiving a soaking with an ounce of liver 
of sulphur in three gallons of water. The liver of 
sulphur must be fresh bought, or have been stored in a 
damp-proof tin, as it quickly deteriorates ; the average 
cost is sixpence a pound. 

Plants may show signs of exhaustion after much 
flowering. If there are any embryo shoots jutting out 
from the lower branches, signs of incipient vigour, 
the main stem should be cut down to within three, or 
even two, feet of the ground, then some soot water 
or liquid manure supplies will hasten on a second crop 
of bloom. The counsel, " Never let a pod of seed form 
on sweet peas," ought to be written up in large letters 
of gold. Home-saved seed is mostly a mistake ; still, 
for the consolation of those who take special pride 
in being seed-raisers for the garden, one pod on each 
clump, and two to each yard of a hedge, might be 
allowed. Seed-making is really the raison d'etre of 
the plants ; once they have thoroughly fulfilled their 



ALL ABOUT SWEET PEAS 119 

destiny they succumb, as die the butterflies and moths 
that have securely deposited their eggs where infant 
grubs will find food. In the hot weeks of summer a 
daily picking-off of dead blossoms will be necessary. 

Avenues of sweet pea clumps, by paths, will display 
separate varieties as exquisitely as possible, and 
afford scope for tender or forcible colour harmonies, 
or those bizarre contrasts that delight when not too 
numerous. A triple row of clumps, in a semi-circle 
on a lawn, gives a welcome shady nook within to carry 
chairs to in the sunshine hours that set bees and other 
winged insects all a-flutter above the honeyed flower- 
spread. Groups in shade will repay the planter by the 
extra purity of the blossom colours when July and 
August have paled the harvest out in the open. Waved 
hedges are prettier than straight ones. A gap in a 
ten-foot row of sweet peas can have some of the 
branches tied across to form an arch. 

List of sweet pea varieties for garden beauty and 
vase supplying : 

Dorothy Eckford. White, long-stemmed. 

Etta Dyke. White, with waved, or " Spencer," petals. 

Burpee's Earliest White. Very free bloomer. 

Mrs. Collier. Primrose. 

Dobbie's Mid-blue. Approaching cornflower shade. 

Sybil Eckford. Creamy apricot. 

Lord Nelson. Dark blue. 

Marie Corelli. Magenta carmine, waved. 

Maud Holmes. Crimson, sunproof, waved. 

Miss Willmott. Orange-pink shades. 

Mrs. Eckford. Yellow. 

Mont Blanc, Very early white. 



120 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Mrs. C. W. Breadmore. Buff, edged with pink. 

Navy Blue. Violet-indigo. 

Nubian. Maroon, waved. 

Othello. Chocolate-claret ; very free. 

Paradise Ivory. Ivory. Exceedingly fragrant. 

Prima Donna. Wild-rose pink. 

Phenomenal. White, edged with lilac, waved. 

Prince Olaf. Marbled blue on white. 

Rose du Barri. A wonderful blend of carmine rose 

and orange, waved. 
St. George. Fiery scarlet. 
Zephyr. Bright blue, waved. 
Asta Ohn. Lavender, waved. 
Agnes Eckford. Immense pink. 
Blackbird. The nearest to black. 
Chrissie Unwin. Cerise, waved. 
Countess of Radnor. Mauve and pale lilac. 
Countess Cadogan. Sky blue. 
Countess Spencer. Pink, waved. 
Emily Eckford. Blue and mauve, large. 
Florence Nightingale. Mauvy-lavender. 
George Stark. Scarlet, waved. 
Gorgeous. Orange-salmon. 
Hon. Mrs. E. Kenyon. Primrose. 
Helen Lewis. Orange, with rosy wings. 
John Ingman. Rich carmine. 
Janet Scott. Deep pink. 

American Spencer. Red streaks on a white ground. 
Earl Spencer. Fiery salmon-orange, waved. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Don't ground your trust on 
manure, but put manure on the ground." 



CHAPTER XII 

THE WALLS OF THE HOUSE 

" And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air 
(where it comes and goes, like the warbling of music) than in the 
hand, therefore nothing is more fit for that delight than to know 
what be the flowers and plants that do best perfume the air." — ■ 
Bacon. 

OPEN-AIR life is gaining in favour every day, 
but our climate obliges the votaries of it to 
regard roofs as frequently essential ; wide- 
open windows of countless dwellings now proclaim 
that fresh-air lovers are doing their utmost to keep 
their lungs filled and their heads dry at the same time. 
Why then, are so many home walls bare, or draped 
only in unscented foliage ? 

Of the worth of the ivy for picturesqueness, and 
of the Virginian creeper for autumn tints, it would 
be folly to speak ungratefully, yet these climbers 
should mostly be kept to aspects where few other 
plants would thrive, or the latter should have flowering 
creepers grown against it. Amateur gardeners are 
needlessly afraid to combine climbers ; in a rich, deep 
border there is ample food for a couple to live on the 
same yard, and a passing reflection will surely call to 
mind glorious combinations witnessed in overgrown 
old country gardens, where roses even peep out of 
ivies, and the walls, from earth to chimneys, are hung 



122 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

with jasmines, wistarias, clematises, and roses, all 
clasping hands, all caressingly encircling doors and 
windows. 

As a rule the drip that falls from ivy kills delicate 
plants, but it will not injure sturdy rose species, 
clematis Jackmanni, clematis vitalba, which is the 
cultivated traveller's joy, yellow jasmine, or innumer- 
able other attractive wall subjects. Instead it will 
give them rough stems to climb by, and serve as a back- 
ground to the pictures of their blossom. Ugly houses 
should be planted around with ivies and the beautiful 
vines that are known as Virginian creepers, because 
those are the closest-woven and most lasting tapestries. 
Of course there will be autumnal leaf-falls from the 
latter, but the network of boughs remains after, of 
immense value as a subduer of garish red brick, or a 
veil over dilapidated stucco or mouldy-looking cement. 
The self-clinging Virginian creeper (ampelopsis sem- 
pervirens) is fit for south, west, or even east aspects 
in most localities, and this too-little-known species 
retains its shining green leaves permanently. They 
are small leaves, the same size as those of the brilliant 
self-holding Boston vine (ampelopsis Veitchii), which 
is the popular villa covering, but deciduous. 

For north and north-east walls a choice can be made 
between the old Virginian creeper (ampelopsis 
quinqusefolia), that ramps up a tall building in an 
amazingly short time, but needs nailing, or the self- 
clinging Virginian creeper that is not the evergreen 
one, has all the colour and leaf size of the more ancient 
type, and will cling even to " rough-cast " walls not 
of the newest construction. Where these climbers 
exist the ground below will be smothered in shed leaves 



THE WALLS OF THE HOUSE 123 

for a few weeks of early winter ; that is an unavertible 
trouble. However, robust Virginian creeper we must 
have for those cold, unlucky sites that most call out 
for adornment, and this species (ampelopsis Muralis) 
is the worthiest. 

Turning to the subject of ivies, the first lesson to 
master is the selecting sorts that will give satisfaction. 
Within the family are abnormal contradictions of 
type, so an ignorant gardener might find she had 
planted one that would never grow higher than a few 
inches, or so deliberate a climber that years would 
elapse before more than a yard's progress was made, 
or, maybe, so delicate a kind that a cold wind would 
kill it sooner than a geranium would perish. 

Common Irish ivy (hedera helix vegeta) is the thick- 
growing plain green climber that birds build their 
nests in so freely. All varieties should be pruned in 
April, but this, when old-established, requires to be 
shorn apparently close to the brick, if the noise of the 
sparrow tribe is objected to ; by the middle of summer 
it will be verdant and thick again, but not so dense as 
to help constitute a nuisance. There is a variegated 
form of this, charmingly blotched with cream, and 
almost as hardy. Another most vigorous ivy is hedera 
helix Rcegneriana, possessed of large, dull, deep green, 
heart-shaped leaves as tough as leather ; in this we 
have a handsome mantle for portions of a white stone 
or cemented house. A cheerful hardy sort is the 
yellowish green rampant hedera helix algeriensis ; 
of this there are two rather less strong varieties, one 
mottled with yellow, one streaked with silver. 

There is a slender-waisted ivy of very pointed 
extremities ; this is known as hedera helix dentata, 



124 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

and is strong, but not as quick climbing as some. 
Hedera helix digitata is shaped in the graceful slit-up 
way, has white veinings to its deep green leaves, seldom 
fails, and will cover brickwork speedily. Then hedera 
helix marmorata, big and rounded of leaf, irregularly 
blotched with clear cream, is a lovely canopy over a 
north or east porch. We may have a maroon-purple 
ivy if we will, in hedera helix purpurea, and the wonder 
is that people do not take more advantage of the 
opportunity, so grand, if sombre, are the warm-hued 
masses of fine foliage, so moderating to the glare of 
red houses, so striking an addition to white stone. 

Ivies abound that are fair enough for the genial 
sunny walls, and safe enough for growing behind 
floral climbers ; the latter must not be too thick in 
habit, though, or will choke them, so the better plan 
is to set these gems of the ivy race in between other 
subjects where their first yards of growth will be both 
unimpeded and unveiled. Green, cream, yellow, and 
pink all appear in the loveliest of all, hedera helix 
maderensis variegata, also in hedera helix alba margin- 
ata, which is rather stronger, while hedera helix 
marginata rubra has rosy-red edges in autumn. None 
of these can be expected to go ahead fast ; it is as 
dainty adornments that they merit patronage. 

Hedera helix Caenwoodiana is considered the best 
self-clinging ivy : its tendrils are extraordinarily 
tenacious, and the deeply cut leaves, darkest green 
veined with white, make a handsome show. The 
familiar hedera helix donerailensis, and the silver- 
edged hedera helix marginata grandis, also attach 
themselves readily to walls. 

The announcement that ivies all require rich soil 



THE WALLS OF THE HOUSE 125 

may be received with surprise, so accustomed are we 
to seeing ivy as the generous semi-wild obliterater 
of defects, the ubiquitous draper of dead trees and 
ruins. Yet not only should the garden borders be well 
manured for them, if the best display is wanted, but 
watering should be attended to, and stimulants of some 
kind be administered occasionally. The planting 
months are September to December, February to 
May. Instead of training an ivy plant at once up a 
wall or fence, its long shoot, or shoots, must be tipped 
at the end, laid flat along the soil, and pegged down 
to it. 

Clematises would be more planted if unskilled flower 
cultivators were not ignorant how to prune them. A 
notion is abroad that about every individual " Maiden's 
Bower " (to give the climber its antique name) needs 
a different knife-treatment. Now the mystery is 
easily solved. Clematises are divided into several 
classes. Firstly we have the Jackmanni type, with 
which the early montana, the starry viticella species, 
are reckoned, as all to be cut back two-thirds of their 
branch length each February or March ; secondly 
we associate the exquisite florida type, large bloomers 
of May and June, with the giant lanuginosa representa- 
tives that begin in summer and continue throughout 
autumn, and these are to be cut back only one-third. 
Other clematises, such as patens, less met with, can 
be reckoned as only in need of thinning out and tipping. 
All wish for rich soil, lightened by road grit, a February 
mulch of old manure, and a space of two feet in which 
to grow. When planting a clematis that is to run up 
a Virginian creeper it should be at least a foot in front, 
and be bent backwards. Half the clematises visible 



126 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

on houses are suffering terribly from overcrowded 
branches, owing to the young tendrils of each spring 
having been left to entangle themselves instead of 
having been tenderly taught how to climb. 

To be able to lean from a bedroom window in early 
spring above the multitudinous peaked white buds of 
clematis montana is one of those joys to which the 
suburban or the country dweller is entitled to look 
forward all winter ; a week later the room will be full 
of a perfume that heralds all the scents of approaching 
summer. Because fragrance is more cheering than we 
know, more subtly provocative of good influence — 
medical scientists are finding that out at last — every 
woman should strive after surrounding all her windows 
with climbers noted for scent, or at grouping power- 
fully scented shrubs, perennials, and annuals beyond 
the climbers gifted only with beauty. There should 
not be a house-wall border without its mezereon 
(daphne mezereum) reaching four-foot boughs towards 
the skies as though protesting that February may have 
pink or yellow blossoms and an odour of indescribable 
excellence. Honeysuckles are mostly so hardy that 
they cannot fail where morning or afternoon sun can 
reach them ; jasmines, white or yellow, will live for 
years and years in shade, though they too love King Sol. 

Honeysuckles offer such various effects. The red, 
white-lined flowers of Thunberg's honeysuckle (loni- 
cera flexuosa), continuously produced in summer and 
autumn, are little like clear yellow trusses of the 
almost as perpetual Henderson's (lonicera Hendersoni). 
A south wall can have the January and February 
blooming white lonicera fragrantissima especially 
tucked away in warm nooks between two bays, or a 



THE WALLS OF THE HOUSE 127 

bay window and a porch, to astonish the passer-by. 
The all-green Japanese honeysuckle twines wherever 
it is placed ; the variegated form (lonicera japonica 
aureo-reticulata) would be esteemed a valuable pink- 
flushed, gold-leaved shrub even without its reddy- 
yellow blossom. Then there is the giant yellow honey- 
suckle (lonicera gigantea), the late red and gold Dutch 
honeysuckle (lonicera periclymenum), which has to be 
pruned back occasionally, the yellow trumpet honey- 
suckle (lonicera flava nova), which, like its sister, the 
scarlet trumpet (lonicera sempervirens) has evergreen 
foliage and expects a south aspect. The honeysuckle 
has another charm : it is as early as the good old 
American currant in putting forth buds of leafage. 

Jasmines to give yellow stars in summer are jas- 
minum fruticans and humile revolutum, the latter 
perfumed, and a continuer until the yellow winter 
species (jasminum nudiflorum) starts again. Of late 
years the giant jasminum primulinum has been dis- 
covered, which presents branches covered the whole 
length with yellow flowers big as primroses. Jasmines 
are suitable town growers. 

The blue passion flower is mildly sweet, the white 
variety, Constance Elliott, really fragrant. These 
are a prey to earwigs : in some gardens near rivers, 
lakes, or marshes they cannot be safeguarded, for 
painting the wall close by them with dabs of creosote, 
though the pest would avoid the place, is an evil- 
smelling device unsuited to the neighbourhood of 
windows. Probably seaside gardens are the best for 
passion flowers, and in Sussex the egg-shaped yellow 
fruits may be seen hanging all winter. 

The grape-flower vine, or wistaria, flourishes grandly 



128 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

in many localities, but refuses to live in others. It is 
not a lover of extreme heat, so removing it from a south 
to a west wall sometimes saves its life. The white 
variety looks rare, and should be used for contrast. 
Both are honey-scented. 

Shrubs in plenty are suited to house walls, indeed 
many require the protection and thrive better for the 
support. Most scented of all is the magnolia, but 
florists say that magnolias, like tulip-trees, mulberries, 
and walnuts, and many other famous subjects, are 
shunned nowadays because a rapid age demands 
rapid growers. Southernwood, the yellow flowering 
silvery-green aromatic " Old Man," is curiously 
charming when trained out on red brick, and, will do 
to ornament the worst walls ; barberries can be simi- 
larly pressed into service, being handsome for leaves, 
blossoms, and berries ; the blue mountain sweet 
(ceanothus azureus) has a novel look, because of its 
periwinkle-hued florescence in April, and later, but 
needs a south look-out. 

" The new is not always beautiful, the beautiful 
need not be new." No, but in the flower kingdom 
gifts are marvellously combined. There are novel 
climbing plants sure to rejoice the heart, with many 
others so seldom met with in gardens that the woman 
who introduces them to a locality will be hailed as a 
discoverer, and set all tongues wagging. Notoriety of 
this character is undeniably precious. The following 
list will be a partial guide to good things. 

Golden bramble-berry. Rubus fruticosus aurea. A 
charming robust climber with bright yellow 
variegated leaves, pretty blossom, and edible 



THE WALLS OF THE HOUSE 129 

fruit. There is also a " cut-leaved " bramble, 
of great beauty, and fine blackberries. 

Bridgesia Spicata. A light-growing self -dinger, with 
purple blossom in spring. 

Climbing Escallonia. A hybrid, with rosy carmine 
blossom. Fairly hardy. 

Red Jasmine. Jasminum beesianum, a species from 
China, yet suited to English gardens. 

Variegated Jew's Mallow. Kerria japonica variegata. 
Yellow flowers, foliage edged with silver. 

Starry Magnolia. Pink blooming. Magnolia stellata. 
Not a tall grower. Hardy. 

Maidenhair vine. Muehlenbeckia complexa. A rapid 
twiner, with small evergreen foliage on black 
stems, insignificant white blossom, but a 
most elegant effect. Hardy on warm walls 
or porch arches. 

Potato vine. Solanum jasminoides. A glorious full- 
foliaged climber that is evergreen, and gives 
masses of white blossom from August to 
November. Hardy, prefers sand, or peat 
mixed with the soil. 

Abutilon Vitifolium. A wall shrub, in sunshine. 
Palest mauve 

Climbing Knotweed. Polygonum baldschuanicum. 
This will ramp to the top of a house and send 
down lavish festoons of pinky- white blossom. 
Fairly hardy. 

Crimson Glory vine. Vitis coignetise. A fast grower, 
with large leathery vine leaves, brown under- 
neath ; becomes orange gold, and scarlet 
crimson in autumn. Hardy. 

Pink Bindweed. Calystegia pubescens flore-pleno, is 

K 



i30 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

the double variety of pale rose perennial con- 
volvulus. Light-growing. Not quite hardy. 
Scarlet Pomegranate. Punica granatum plena. Double 
vermilion blossoms among thick pale green 
foliage. Will cover a house in time, if given 
a south aspect. 

All light growers, whether of perpetual existence or 
of transient nature, hardy or so delicate that they can 
only be bedded out at the end of May, can be used to 
mingle with the stalwart old roses, vines, clematises, 
Virginian creepers, even ivies, if care is taken to feed 
all the roots well, and reasonable prudence determines 
the pairing. A vigorous Gloire de Dijon rose will be 
none the worse for giving its thick wood to be clung 
to by the Chilian Glory Flower (eccremocarpus scabra), 
brought from the greenhouse to give its orange splen- 
dour out-of-doors in the middle of summer ; the spring 
clematis montana can be hidden later by the yellow 
florescence of canary creeper ; on an east wall the flame 
flower (tropaeolum speciosum) may dwell always to 
climb the green euonymus or common hop. 

Window boxes have rather a suburban air in the 
real country ; the practice of growing plants in them 
suggests that tall climbers cannot be relied upon to 
frame the casements. Where they are used the colours 
of the flowers must be kept in harmony with those 
that the walls support, and the more foliage there is 
the more artistic will the result seem. 

Within towns the patient gardening that has to 
go to the furnishing of these boxes cannot be too cordi- 
ally commended, for what a vast change would be 
wrought if the hobby were a usual one. To quote 



THE WALLS OF THE HOUSE 131 

Leigh Hunt : " Look at the windows down a street, and, 
generally speaking, they are all barren. The inmates 
might see through roses and geraniums, if they would ; 
but they do not think of it, or not with loving know- 
ledge enough to take the trouble." 

Gardening Proverb. — " Beauty may be but skin deep, 
but fair wall-coverings are made first by fair minds.' ' 



CHAPTER XIII 

BEAUTIFUL BORDERS 

" If we throw a simple glance on plants, we shall perceive that 
they have relations to the elements which promote their growth ; 
that they have relations to each other, from the groups which they 
contribute to form ; that they have relations to the animals which 
derive nourishment from them ; and, finally, to Man, who is the 
centre of all the works of Creation. To these relations I give the 
name of harmonies." — J. H. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. 

THE herbaceous border is to the garden what 
the National Gallery is to the world of art. 
In it should be a collection representative 
of the very best plants, so placed as to exhibit them 
to perfect advantage. Just as we do not have replicas 
of the same pictures, so we should not have repetitions 
of groups of precisely the same flowering beauty. 
Yet it would be extremely difficult to find an herbaceous 
border in which all the perennial masses are of separate 
colours, varieties, or species. A bronze-purple peren- 
nial larkspur (delphinium) is totally unlike its pale or 
deep-blue, mauve or white relation, or any of its 
kinsfolk of blended pink and sky, violet and " royal/' 
or black- veined lavender ; a bellflower may be the tiny 
spreading white type from Liguria, that is generally 
grown in hanging baskets but will flourish in a sunny, 
well-drained border, or the noble chimney, or steeple, 
bellflower which, unfortunately, has but a biennial 
existence ; a crowsfoot that is but a double edition 



BEAUTIFUL BORDERS 133 

of the field buttercup is as much entitled to the generic 
name as is the intensely vivid, ball-shaped, many- 
hued, bulbous ranunculus from Persia. There is 
intellectual interest to be gained by comparing the 
individuals of a plant family, there is delight to be 
reaped from a study of what a wide range of colour 
the identical variety can show, but, except for creating 
broad masses of telling hues in landscape-gardening, 
or cherishing extra examples of some pet plant for 
gathering or propagating from, there is no object in 
setting similar flower-groups in the same garden. If 
this is considered too sweeping a statement maybe 
the reader will concede just this point, that at least 
the repetitions should not be in the same border. 
Diversity need not cost any more than monotony. 
There are thousands of splendid perennials, and each 
year enterprising florists increase the supply, by 
skilled breeding, or by ransacking foreign lands for 
formerly unintroduced beauties. 

There is danger that the popularity of the herbaceous 
border idea will almost do away, in small and medium- 
sized gardens, with effective borders of special plants — 
chrysanthemums, phloxes, perennial larkspurs, Michael- 
mas daisies, etc. At present we find the mixed peren- 
nials all together, and the dahlias placed at intervals 
over some square plot. Even in the environs of 
London, on cold clay soil, the dahlia has proved willing 
to live without being grubbed up and tuber-dried each 
winter, and it is seen at its best when associated with 
other plants, not set in ranks with foot-hardened mud 
between. As for a semi-shady border all planted 
with phloxes, the summer ones (phlox suffruticosa) 
and the later blooming (phlox decussata), words fail 



134 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

to describe the wealth of colour, the prodigality of 
blossom, the garden picture that is witnessed. Chry- 
santhemums are as myriad hued ; perennial larkspurs 
supply the blues, from palest to deepest, toning on to 
violet, purple, and nearly black, that are invariably 



WHITE 
VIOLA 



WHITE 
SAXIFRACI 



SCARLET 
SUN ROSE 



WHITE 
[KNAPWEED, 



YELLOW 
VIOLA 



ORANce 

ICELAND 
POPPY 



LEMON 
vlO\_A 



red /double 
pansies/ white 
Primrose 



TWHITE 
f WOODRUFF 



BLUE 
SAGE 



CLOVE 
VcARNATICN 



YORIEN' 
'white I _ A1 _ 
SCAR- /cOLUMBmeipoppy 
LET P 



/OX-EYE 
DAISY 



SCARLET I 
BSRG.AMC 



[RED N 



LET 
TURTLE/ 
HEAD,, 

WHITE /SCARLET' 



MONTBPETtAf ^-< BLUE 

ORANG£\ ALKAN E T J 
GLOBE V— ^ AiU v 

FLOWER 

V/HITE 

MICH 

ORANCiE JdAISy 
DAY 
LILY 

_ .CHRYSAN* 

RED I Tu «^ tt „- T BLUE 
ALUfA 

Root 

cLRiSE^-jr^BLA .: 
sweet 



fCERISE/ I CATCH 

1dabyV fly , red 



P. LARKS 
PUR yCOLD£» 

' ROYAL ' 
BLUE 

larkspur/sunflowep 



JAP 
kwiND- 
[FLOWE 
'PINK 

/CRIMSON 
fSNAPD«AQOH 



EMU/A 



THEMUM 



KNAP- 
VYEED 



FLOWER /YELLOW 
P,NK V C01 - UM6 ' NE /sCARLETV' LL,A y^_^LEOP A ftP5 l 
AVENS ^>-f SCARLET / & AN 
TUR.K5 

CAP / WHITE \ BLUE 
l L 'l-Y ( „, A v J VERONICA 



SALMON 
CARNATION 



SCARLE1 
CARNATION, 



FLAX 



DEEP 

ROSE 
PHLOX, 



PINK 

SWEET 

WILLIAM, 

PINK 
French 

..ANEMONE 



WHITE 
*RARIS 
<£_ 



GOLD 
DUST 



DOUBLE 



ROSE 
PAEON y 

CRwiOfl 
VSAILLARDIA 

MADONNA. 
LILY 

DOUBLE 
WHITE 
PA I ST 



Fig. 44. Colour Arranging in Borders. 

appreciated. A simple border of different sunflowers, 
carpeted or edged by golden pansies, may be far 
lovelier than a collection of polyglot perennials. 
Really the representative herbaceous border is more a 
connoisseur's delight, an exhibition to be reverently 
approached, catalogue in hand, than a striking feature 
for the pleasure grounds. Of course there are methods 
of securing finer displays of colour and form, while 
still massing the hardy plants. 

A glance at Fig. 44 will soon reveal how borders 



BEAUTIFUL BORDERS 



*35 



can be arranged so as to contain antagonistic colours 
in each without discord, how also to present more or 
less notably bright stretches. There is a commence- 
ment with scarlet, the dangerous hue for mingling, 
then white gives relief beside orange and gold ; 



INDIGO 

P. 
LARK- 
SPUR 



PURPLE 
MICHAEL"! 
MAS 
DAISY 



GOLOEN 
R.OD 



YELLOW] 
TREE 
LUPIN 



MOON 
.DAISY I 



ROYAL 

BLUE 

P 

LARKSPuf 



WHITE 
HOLLY- 
HOCK 

PLUME 
POPPY 



HELENS ' °* ANGE 

Flower/ ox - eye 



crimson 
GROONpj phlox 
BELL 



PURPLE ^KLO 
VALERIA r> 



ORANGE 
CMRY3AN- 
vTHEMUM^ 



GOAT5 
6£ARD 



SUNFLOWER 



AYAROOyWHITE 

Dahlia /nuchael- > 
mas 

JiAlSY 



R.05E 



PINK 
CAR- 
NAT- 
ION 



PURPLE, 



MUL- 



VERMlLLIOf 
PHLOX 



RED 

HOT 

POKERS 

JACOB'S 
LADDER 



'COLO 
RAYED 

JAP 
iLILY 



GOLPENL 
ROD 



MIXED 
LARKSPURS 



BLUE 
'MICHAEL- 
MAS 
DAISY 



WHITE 

WalERian 



YELLOW 

ICHRYSANTHENUfl 



^£A 
^LAVENDER, 

YELLOW] 

|6ERMAN 
IRlS 




BACHELORS 

rock \ XELLOW ^ button 
CRESS V YARROW 



CONE FLOWER 



WHITS 
FOXGLOVE 



DOUBLE 
WHITE ARA&13 



Purple/ 

VIOLA 



GOLD 
SPANISH 
IRIS 

CREAM 
VIOLA >^ OL0 



SLOE 

/catananchs 



YELLOW 

foam ( pompon 
flowerV^- 5 **™*" 

AAU.vv^XELLOW HANVK- 

p^leV^IB. 

BLUE \ DOUBLE 
VlOLA ! VIOLA 

VIOLA 



WHITE 



DAISY 



YELLOW 
fWELSH POPPY 



violet 

PANSIES 



PINK V'.OLA 



Fig. 45. Combined Perennials. 

white again intervenes between yellow and blues, 
though the latter colours never quarrel ; blues are 
nearly hedged round by yellows again before blush 
and pale pinks lead on to deep rose and crimson. The 
next length of the border would probably prove how 
maroon and peach-lilac, with lemon-yellows to soften 
them, can be accompanied by heliotrope and warm 
purple. 

In the plan of Fig. 45 there is less art, yet the colours 
will all fit in satisfactorily, none of them offending 
the eye that views the blend from the neighbouring 



136 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

path or from a distance. Before considering shapes 
for borders it will be well for us to give some attention 
to the plants named here, lest their English titles 
prove unilluminative, owing to the fact that people 
differ as to their correctness. A descriptive list, to 
act as a key to both plans, should convey knowledge 
with least difficulty. 

*Scarlet perennial Larkspur. Delphinium nudicaule. 

Vermilion, ij feet tall. 
*Scarlet Turtle Head. Chelone barbarta. Some- 
times called a penstemon. 2 feet. 
White Mossy Saxifrage. Many sorts, but saxifraga 

hypnoides is perhaps best. 
Scarlet and green Columbine. Aquilegia skinneri. 
*White Harebell. Campanula rotundifolia alba. 
White Dragon's Head. Draeocephalum virginicum 
alba. Sometimes catalogued as physostegia. 
Slender snowy spikes. A fine plant. 2 feet. 
Scarlet Windflower. Anemone fulgens. Gives ver- 
milion daisy-stars in early spring. 
*Scarlet Sun Rose. Helianthemum venustum, or a 
florist's variety such as Fireball. Blooms all 
summer. 9 inches. 
Ox-eye Daisy. Chrysanthemum maximum. All 

varieties are beautiful. 4 feet. 
Autumn Moon Daisy. Pyrethrum uglinosum. White 
marguerite, with pale green centres. 5 feet. 
*White Flax. Linum monogynum. Grassy stemmed. 

Hardy. 2 feet. 
*Scarlet Catchfly. Silene laciniata purpusii. A grand 

* Those marked by a star are better planted in spring than in 
late autumn. 



BEAUTIFUL BORDERS 137 

plant for sunny ground, but expensive. 
Scarlet lychnis might be used instead. 1 foot. 

Scarlet Bergamot. Monarda didyma, " Cambridge 
scarlet." 3 feet. 

Scarlet Alum root. Heuchera sanguinea. Elegant 
in growth. 2 feet. 

Yellow Leopard's Bane. Doronicum. All are excel- 
lent. 
*Blanket Flowers. Gaillardias. Mostly gold and crim- 
son. 2 feet. 

Orange Globe Flower. Trollius asiaticus. Profuse 
in blossom. 2 feet. 

White Alpine Pink. Dianthus alpinus albus. 6 
inches. 

White Veronica. The best is veronica spicata alba. 
Constant in bloom. 1 foot. 

Blue Alkanet. Anchusa italica. Dropmore variety 
is best. Cornflower blue. 3 feet. 

Blue Knapweed. Centaurea montana. Like a violet- 
blue giant cornflower. 2 feet. 

White Fleabane. Erigeron Coulteri. A rayed daisy- 
like flower, with gold eye. 1 foot. 
*Pink Crane's Bill. Geranium Endressi. 1 foot. 

Crimson Groundsel. Senecio pulcher. Very hardy, 
often blooms on into December. 2J feet. 

Yellow Yarrow. Achillea tomentosa. Fern-like foli- 
age tufts and gold florescence. 9 inches. 

Yellow Mullein. Verbascums. All are good. Aver- 
age height 5 feet. 

White Bachelor's Buttons. Ranunculus aconitifolius 
flore-pleno. Very hardy. 2 feet. 

* Those marked by a star are better planted in spring than in 
late autumn. 



138 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

*Foam Flower. Tiarella cordifolia. Creamy white 

feathery blossom, i foot. 
*Plume Poppy. Bocconia cordata. Handsome silver 

leaves, cream sprays, of minute blossom. 

Very hardy. 3 to 5 feet. 
Helen's Flower. Helenium. Many grand sorts. Gold. 

3 to 5 feet. 
Orange Ox-eye. Heliopsis. Known also as American 

orange sunflower. 4 feet. 
Hawkweed. Hieracium villosum. White leaved, 

yellow flowering. 1 foot. 
Goat's Beard. Astilbe japonica. White feathery 

sprays. 2\ feet. 
Cluster Bellflower. Campanula glomerata. True vio- 
let. Very effective, and quite hardy in sun 

or shade. 3 feet. 
♦Yellow Welsh Poppy. Meconopsis cambrica. Thrives 

like a weed. if feet. 
Cone Flower. Rudbeckia. Many kinds. All tall 

and handsome. Hardy. 

Both herbaceous mixed borders, and those of her- 
baceous species separately, or in partnership, can have 
design in them. Tastes will always differ as to the 
comparative merits of irregular grouping, or congregat- 
ing in patterns, yet no controversy is necessary, since 
both styles have their claims, and both can surely be 
tried even in the villa strip garden. 

Figures 46, 47, 48, and 49, will supply maps for borders 
for copying in the interests of myriads of perennials, or 
of a few. The first requires, for effectiveness, that the 

* Those marked by a star are better planted in spring than in 
late autumn. 



BEAUTIFUL BORDERS 



139 



portions marked B and C should be of similar colour, 
but difference in height is admissible, If the A's were 


























c 


A 


C 


A 


C 


A 


C 


A 


C 


A 


C 












B 












c 


A 


c 


A 


C 


A 


c 


A 


c 


A 


c 



Fig. 46. A Border in Squares. 

square groups of various coloured two-foot tall chry- 
santhemums, B might consist of the double white 



© 



c 




Fig. 47. An Edged Border. 

yarrow (achillea ptarmica, the Pearl, or Boule de 
Niege), which blossoms continuously if occasionally 




Fig. 48. A Pattern Border. 

shorn of dead bloom, and the outer portions, C, could 
then be of white violas. Dahlias, especially the corn- 




Fig. 49. The Vandyke Border. 

pact-growing pompons, or phloxes, look admirable 
grouped in squares. If this border were made against 



140 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

a wall, fence, or hedge, the plants in the back row of 
squares should be double the height of those in the. 
space B (which latter should be continued in the back- 
ground spaces C), and treble the height of the identically 
coloured, or paler shade, plants of the foreground A's. 
Then there is the further possibility of making a com- 
posite herbaceous border by this same plan, using 
different coloured flowers for each square, and different 
white ones in between and for the centre row. 

A border for mixed perennials can be satisfactorily 
edged by a pretty design for pansies or pinks, as in 
the design of Fig. 47, with a round group of some 
giant herbaceous plant or other at wide distances, as 
shown by B and C. Or a border all of hybrid pyre- 
thrums, edged by violas, might have alternate groups 
of lilies and perennial larkspurs. 

The design of Fig. 48 is only adopted for a border 
in the open. If on a large scale scarlet perennials 
could be located in spaces A, the highest in the centre, 
gold ones in spaces B, the carpet at C could be yellow, 
the carpet at D white, and the repetition along a whole 
border would be remarkably showy. This is an admir- 
able way to grow carnations and violas of all hues, 
devoting the various spaces to different varieties, 
never repeating a harmony. 

If against a wall, the points of the design Fig. 49 
must be half tall, half dwarf, but in the open they can 
be of plants of heights to match, if preferred. This 
would be a good selection of plants in the former 
case. 

A sunflowers, B white tree lupin, C tall rose Michael- 
mas daisies, D Madonna lilies, E blue alkanet, F blue 
pansies, G gold dust (alyssum saxatile), H crimson 



BEAUTIFUL BORDERS 141 

pansies, I pink crane's bill (geranium Endressii), J 
yellow violas. 

So far our attention has all been with straight-edged 
borders, but nobody should elect to create one, unless 
for positively driving reasons. It is costly to alter 
borders adjoining paths already made ; supposing 
those walks are paved, tiled, or of asphalte, the expense 
and trouble can seldom be incurred. The woman 
who can build a garden to please herself, or can remodel 
borders flanking turf, should choose one of the edge- 
shapes for herbaceous borders portrayed by the 
following designs. 

The curves of Fig. 50 may well be elongated if the 
garden is of vast length ; the castellations of Fig. 51 
can be made square or elongated according to fancy ; 
the sharp peaks of Fig. 52 prove annoying on a minute 
scale upon turf, for all the grass-cutting against them 
has to be done by hand-shears. Fig. 53 displays a 
scalloped instead of a curved edge. Fig. 54 is un- 
common, and serves to specially draw notice to lovely 
dwarf plants that may occupy the foremost portion. 
Bulbous plants, of the movable as well as the perma- 
nent order, can be beautifully mingled among the 
ordinary perennials. 

Herbaceous borders made in open grass are bound 
to be a success, unless abnormally ill furnished, sup- 
posing they are given elegant outlines. Figs. 55 
and 56 suggest an angular and a rounded style, 
so, for lawn-mowing convenience again, the latter 
should be preferred for the little garden, lest the acute 
points of the former cause vexation and, by unskilful 
tending, become blunted. 

Silver, grey, and variegated foliage plants are of 



142 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 



Fig. 50. The Waved Border. 



Fig 51. The Castellated Border 




Fig 52 The Peaked Border. 




Fig. 53. The Scalloped Border. 



BEAUTIFUL BORDERS 



143 




Fij. 54. An Effective Border. 






Fig. 55. An Elaborate Border in the Open. 




Fig. 56. A Border for Open Grass or Grave!. 



144 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

immense worth to separate violent colours ; there 
are yellow and bronze, copper and crimson-leaved 
plants too that can never be located just for their 
blossom hues. In Japanese paintings crudest tints 
are often close together, only yellow being between^ 
which evidences well the truth that clear gold, without 
any suspicion of orange, will blend sufficiently the most 
antagonistic brilliances on record. Indeed, it can 
do more than white in this fashion. Cream, by-the- 
bye, is infinitely more softening than white ; as a test 
a group of magenta phlox may be set within a circular 
belt of white pansies in one spot, and of cream violas 
in another. The sight will be rested by the latter 
harmony, riveted rather unpleasantly by the former. 

Herbaceous borders ought to be floral from March 
to December. This is gained by so spreading out the 
early and the late bloomers that no long stretch is 
without either. Summer and autumn flowers are 
plentiful enough to almost take care of themselves as 
to the provision of successive shows. Simultaneous 
blossoming is another subject for the gardener to sit 
down before, not only out of doors, but in home even- 
ings. It is useful to draw up a chart for every month, 
marking the flowers that are reported to belong to 
each, and those which can actually be seen in neigh- 
bours' pleasure grounds or local " nurseries." Trees 
and shrubs should be included. In two or three years' 
time the chart will have grown into a priceless guide, 
indicative of personal experience. 

Delicate plants can be put into carefully manoeuvred 
sheltering nooks, between thickets of sturdy tall ones, 
just as non-hardy shrubs may be shielded by body- 
guards of robust evergreens. 



BEAUTIFUL BORDERS 145 

Labels, of any nature, detract from the charm of a 
border, give it an artificial air ; the woman who loves 
her flowers will not want to see them ticketed, as though 
they were cheap goods in a shop window. Let her 
keep an accurate list of the plants, and so scrupulously 
note, on a map, the position of each that, until memory 
is trained, she can quickly possess herself of both 
simple and botanical names. Another expedient is 
to write in indelible ink on green-painted wooden 
labels, and cunningly hide these beneath foliage, only 
to be found by the hand that placed them. 

Gardening Proverb. — " What is to be done but once 
should be done well." 



CHAPTER XIV 

SEED SOWINGS, UNDER GLASS AND IN THE OPEN 

" Then rise the tender germs, upstarting quick, 
And spreading wide their spongy lobes ; at first 
Pale, wan, and livid ; but assuming soon, 
If fann'd by balmy and nutritious air, 
Strain'd through the friendly mats, a vivid green." 

Cowper. 

THE amateur gardener, keen to begin seed- 
sowing in January, may actually start, as 
has been explained, with sweet peas: 
unless she possesses a greenhouse with the temperature 
of seventy-five degrees she will do well to be content 
with lathyrus odoratus for another two months. March 
is quite early enough to raise half-hardy bedding plants 
under glass. It may be done then in cold frames stood 
in sunshine, boxes tightly glass-covered and placed in 
the windows of warm rooms, or in pots, pans, or boxes 
sunk in larger wooden and glass covered boxes — but 
those are, virtually, frames. Another plan is to dig 
some little pits in a border under a south wall, and 
cover them by " lights " from a frame, or make each 
just the size to be made weather-tight when one of 
the useful square hand-lights is placed over it. There 
is still another expedient, the making of nice little 
drills, about six inches wide, and four deep, in that 
south wall border, sowing seeds at the base of these, 
then enclosing them by a lot of pieces of glass, simply 



SEED SOWINGS 147 

laid flat on the soil, slightly overlapping each other. 
Waste glass can be bought very cheaply from builders, 
but of course the appearance of the seed drills will be 
more creditable if the pieces employed are all the same 
size and without jagged edges. 

Because certain plants need to be considerably 
developed by May, in order to commence blooming 
quickly in the beds, those should be bought ready- 
made by the gardener who cannot give the seed the 
early heat that alone will ensure germination then. 
If she wants the flowers late in the autumn, to succeed 
summer glories, well and good. She may sow in March 
and await results, but if she persuades herself that a 
greenhouse temperature of fifty-five to sixty degrees 
— the most general when lamps or oil-stoves are burnt- 
will do the work in March that should have been 
finished off in February she will be laying up disap- 
pointments. There are not many of the bedding plants 
that take so long in reaching free-blossoming maturity ; 
the gorgeous Indian shot (canna) is one, the verbena 
another, the pincushion flower (scabious) a third, 
the graceful Mexican aster (cosmos, or cosmea) a 
fourth. Verbenas sown in March will probably begin 
blooming in August, and will be just getting 
towards their prime when nipped off by winter. 
A hot-bed in a frame, to plunge seed pans in, is 
useful. 

If there is a greenhouse with the average tempera- 
ture mentioned, seeds will germinate rapidly, and 
seedlings thrive apace for a couple of weeks, after 
which the transplanted stuff must be put in the coolest 
and airiest part of the building — against top windows 
unless the climate is dangerous — for another week, 



148 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

then be placed in cold frames, or the heating of the 
greenhouse be discontinued. 

There are greenhouses and greenhouses. Artificial 
warming has to be most carefully managed if a sunny 
one is to be kept from getting too hot at mid-day ; 
the lamp or stove must be put out just in the nick of 
time, and lighted again directly the building is cooling. 
Even an unheated greenhouse must have its tempera- 
ture assiduously regulated, for if sunshine sends that 
up extraordinarily for a few hours, then a drop is made 
to the cold of a frosty night, how can seeds be expected 
to germinate at all, or seedlings to survive ? No, if 
the dangers of the night have to be encountered, and 
not even a little one-burner lamp is used to keep out 
frost, it is folly for the gardener to rejoice in the genial 
atmosphere reigning there on sunny mornings or after- 
noons. She must reduce the day warmth, if she will not 
conquer the night cold. This can be done by ventilat- 
ing very freely during the warm hours, and closing 
the greenhouse entirely before the warmth has departed. 
It may even be necessary to use tiffany or muslin 
shadings over seedlings. 

Frames can be safeguarded from frosts by having 
mats, of any kind, laid right over them, and heaps of 
leaf-mould, loam, straw, or cinders banked against 
their sides. Of course frames must be partly opened, 
just an inch or two, during some day hours, after 
vegetation has appeared inside them. When seedlings 
are growing nicely, and the weather is favourable, 
there must be much more air given. All which 
reflections point to the undoubted truth that only by 
using her own good wits, and learning by experience, 
can the gardener triumph over all the difficulties of 



SEED SOWINGS 149 

plant-raising from seed. She will be well repaid, how- 
ever, by the fascination of the pursuit as much as by 
its successes. 

Bedding plants to sow, with or without heat, during 
March, include Iceland poppies, cornflowers, dwarf 
snapdragons, tall ones for later blooming, abronia 
umbellata grandiflora, a charming pink trailer, agera- 
tum, alonsoas, " annual " hollyhocks, love-lies-bleed- 
ing, anthemis tinctoria, a bright yellow perennial, 
Swan river daisies, pot marigolds, chrysanthemum 
coronarium, striped annual chrysanthemums, clarkias, 
godetias, larkspurs (annual, and the varieties of 
delphinium grandiflorum, azure fairy, butterfly, etc., 
two feet tall), marguerite carnations and Indian 
pinks, which will be rather late, marigolds, annual 
blanket-flowers (gaillardias), gauze flowers (the annual 
gypsophilas), many kinds of everlastings, Japanese 
hops, canary creeper, convolvuluses, lobelia, Drum- 
mond's phlox, the burning bush (kochia tricophylla), the 
variegated mallow- wort (lavatera arborea variegata), 
charming as quite baby specimens, lupins, nemesias, 
tobacco plants, wood sorrels (oxalis), petunias, golden 
feather, the annual cone flower (rudbeckia bicolor), 
salpiglossis, jacobcea, and violas for coming into bloom 
in early autumn. If there is a warm greenhouse, 
or a propagator is used in conjunction with cold frames, 
the vivid scarlet sage can be raised. 

April will be soon enough for stocks, asters, zinnias 
(slow of development), miniature sunflowers, silene 
pendula compacta, the pretty little soapwort, pink 
or white (saponaria), the dwarf annual yellow or pink 
evening primroses, Venus' navelwort, white, with 
silver stems, the ice plant, love-in-a-mist, phlox-worts 



150 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

(leptosiphons), flowering mallow-worts (lavatera trimes- 
tris), butterfly flowers (schizanthus), and nasturtiums. 

Hardy annuals, and various perennials, to beautify 
borders, provide cut flowers in plenty, or spread car- 
pets over beds, can be sown out in the third week of 
March, weather conditions being right, and the soil 
not too wet. Half-hardies should be left to late April 
and May sowings, then crops of many of them can be 
gained as easily as from earlier efforts in sun-heat 
through glass, or artificial heat. 

In addition to all the popular vase flowers the follow- 
ing can be specially recommended : 

Mallow-wort, " Sunset." A grand deep-rose ; buds 
open and flowers last long in water. Catalogued 
as lavatera splendens, " Sunset." 2| feet. 

Double Ranunculus Poppies. Papaver rhceas fl. pi. 
Annual. 2 feet. 

Rose of Heaven. Agrostemma cceli-rosa. Rose, ele- 
gant slim stems. Hardy annual, ij feet. 

Columbines. Aquilegia chrysantha. Yellow, blooms 
all summer. 2§ feet. 

Blue Clover. Asperula azurea setosa. Hardy annual. 
1 foot. 

Rock-Purslane. Calandrinia chromantha. Annual. 
Pink sprays. 1 foot. 

Clarkia. Clarkia elegans, Orange King. Orange-ver- 
milion. Hardy annual. 2 feet. 

Phlox-wort. Collomia coccinea. Coral-red. Hardy 
annual, ij feet. 

Cape Marigold. Calendula pluvialis. Like a white 
marguerite, with maroon-mauve reverse to 
petals. Annual. 1 foot. 



SEED SOWINGS 151 

Blue Pea. Lathyrus sativus azureus. A sky-blue 
miniature pea, forming two-foot hedges or 
clumps. Not scented, but pretty for use with 
sweet peas. Hardy annual. 

Layia. Layia elegans. Yellow daisy flowers, with cut 
petals margined white. 2 feet tall in rich 
soil. Hardy annual. Aromatically scented. 

Honey Lupin. Lupinus luteus. The colour of clear 
yellow honey, and sweet-scented. Hardy 
annual. 2 J feet. 

Annual Orange Poppy. Meconopsis heterophylla. Rich 
orange. Hardy annual. 1 foot. 

In order to succeed with seed sowing, whether in the 
open or under cover, the soil should be maintained in 
a just moist condition. Nine-tenths of recorded failures 
are due to the compost, or the ground, being let dry 
up. A moment's reflection will convince any person 
that a shoot, whether rootlet or upper growth, that has 
pierced its seed husk and begun its adventurous career, 
must sink into a premature grave if its succulent young 
life shrivels. Seeds mildew, or seedlings damp off 
when kept in water-logged soil, but they can bear two 
or three days' ill-treatment of this sort, whereas a few 
hours' dryness must bring death. 

Almost any sweet compost will do for seed pans for 
most plants, plain turfy loam, plain leaf-mould even, 
but the best mixture consists of equal parts of leaf- 
mould and loam, with a quarter part of silver sand, and, 
except for the hardiest annuals, or a scanty number of 
families needing special conditions, with a quarter 
part of old and finely-chopped manure. There are 
tall plants that prefer the lightest diet, such as poppies, 



152 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

and dwarf ones — pansies, for example — which respond 
best to nourishing foods from the first. Cacti must be 
raised in little more than grit, ferns spring up most 
surely in peat and silver sand. But there is no need 
for the tyro at plant propagation to feel discouraged. 
Seeds are mostly sent out with all the essential instruc- 
tions printed on their packets, it being, naturally, the 
desire of firms to achieve reputation as distributors of 
seeds that " come up " ; or if by any chance packets 
have no cultural hints, the seller can always be sent a 
stamped and addressed envelope, with a request for 
guidance. 

Every garden needs coloured primroses, polyanthuses, 
perhaps the graceful coloured cowslips of orange and 
red, bunch or polyanthus primroses, those large- 
trussed hybrids so much used in public parks. Canter- 
bury bells are most showy, sweet Williams, sweet 
rockets, honesty, that gives silver seed sprays after 
purple or white-lilac bloom, and white foxgloves are 
lovely biennials. All these plants, and others too 
numerous to describe, can be raised by the thousand 
out of doors in late March and April, then will be in 
splendid condition to bed out in autumn. 

The soil for outside sowings will be excellent if the 
garden ground has received the general attention that 
has been advised in an earlier chapter. The top three 
inches should be pulverised, to rid it of lumps, cleared 
of every weed and of all large stones, and may well have 
silver sand mixed with it if inclined to be sticky. 

The question of destruction of seed germs by insect 
pests is a sadly serious one. Soil fumigants, that 
cleanse the beds and borders of vermin, are now in 
general favour, but are still somewhat too expensive 



SEED SOWINGS 153 

to use over a large area. Common carbolic powder, 
bought by the pound, and scattered sparingly in that 
surface three inches, will do much to safeguard seed- 
lings. It may be slightly mixed in with the compost 
for seed-boxes and pots, though this can be made 
safe by being baked some minutes in a quick oven, 
afterwards moistened thoroughly again. 

During May and June hosts of perennials can be 
raised in outdoor seed-beds under a south wall, others 
in lines across the vegetable land. The value of seed- 
beds is their being made up of the best soil, and the 
cinder paths that usually surround them being checks 
to slug and snail enemies, whose soft bodies are obliged 
to shun coal dust, or any sharp particles. If sunheat 
is strong, sheets of newspaper should be laid over the 
beds during the middle daytimes. The happiest way 
to secure these sheets is by tucking the edges between 
two bricks here and there. 

Pansies, mimuluses, and other shade lovers, are best 
raised from seed in semi-shadowed beds, or lines in 
borders. July is not at all a bad month for raising 
hardy and non-particular perennials ; there will still 
be time for spring-bloomers to prepare themselves, 
though, even for Brompton stocks and wallflowers, 
spring raising is best, while summer and autumn 
blossomers are certain to make a magnificent display 
in about a twelvemonth. Wallflowers, by-the-bye, are 
simple-livers ; sow them in rather hard, poor soil, 
remove them once, into rows, in similar ground, and 
they will become wiry dwarf bushes of the most 
approved type ; raise them, and keep them growing, in 
rich, easily-moved earth, and the plants, even of re- 
nowned habit as compact bedders, will straggle and go 



154 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

more to leaf than stem. Overfed wallflowers are apt 
to shrivel miserably under winter frosts. 

But all hardy perennials are not easy to grow from 
seed, alas ! Some of the most exquisite alpines, that 
inhabit high altitudes, smile at the snows, are content 
buried under glaciers, will refuse to live for the gardener 
who coddles them. Numbers of the cross-grained 
herbaceous beauties can be raised in semi-shady seed 
beds of only leaf-mould and coarse grit ; others may 
take kindly to pots of similiar compost sunk in cold 
frames placed in shade ; this is the easiest method for 
securing alpine auriculas. A cold greenhouse is a 
convenience for housing the pots or pans. Use can be 
made too of the shadowed nooks, under stagings, of 
greenhouses that are but moderately warmed in winter. 

Taking the broad view of the matter, it is certain 
that the more trouble or risk, the more love is felt for 
the plants that eventually arise and bloom. A mother 
is said to have a disposition to prefer the naughtiest 
child, or, at least, the most wayward. The woman 
gardener should not be frightened off attempting to 
grow any plant for which she has a longing : seeds 
are not extravagant luxuries nowadays, and there are 
usually so many in a packet that the percentage that 
sprout, and of plants that survive, are likely to more 
than recompense the worker. 

Patience is demanded. Many seeds lie dormant 
nearly a year. Why, even the familiar clematis, 
violet, or herbaceous phlox may be as long, or longer. 
On the other hand there is always the delicious excite- 
ment of watching for chance seedlings that may elect 
to arrive rapidly. 

Probably the name of Marchantia polymorpha will 



SEED SOWINGS 155 

strike no terror into the soul, nor even arouse an 
anxious qualm. It is the title of some plant, no doubt ? 
Yes, of the liverwort, perhaps the best represented of 
all plants ! But this is the minute green vampire, 
commonly known as moss, that forms on the top soil 
in pots and boxes, and, if not checked, covers the whole 
with a dainty green sward that chokes all other growth. 
When seeds lie in their carefully filled receptacles 
many months, awaiting the mysterious call that bids 
them germinate, or when sprouting has begun below 
the surface, then liverwort invades the spot, and unless 
removed will ruin all the promise. Tender scraping, 
by the tip of a penknife, can get rid of the " moss," 
yet there is always grave peril to the invisible plant 
development. Prevention is better than cure, as we 
all admit. If the surface of potsful of soil is given an 
eighth of an inch deep mulch of charcoal it is nineteen to 
one that no liverwort will form ; a re-dressing of the 
charcoal once in ten days should make its non-arrival 
sure. But the material must be exceedingly fine, just 
like black dust, and the mulch must lie lightly. 

It may be asked how it is possible to prevent the 
charcoal from becoming a washed-in constituent of the 
soil, instead of a mulch ? Well, no gardener of repute 
ever gives water to potsful of precious seed in just the 
ordinary way ; any fine-rosed can would wreak havoc. 
Supplies are bestowed not from above, but from below. 
Here is the recipe. Fill a pail with tepid rain-water, 
then immerse each pot up to the brim, taking care 
that no drops enter over it. Hold it steady for enough 
seconds for the moisture to percolate up from the 
drainage hole at the base of the pot, and seem about 
to raise the topmost grains of soil. By then the 



156 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

compost is all sufficiently wetted. Boxes and pans, 
having drainage holes also, are equally fit for this 
means of watering their contents. 

Let it be frankly owned that no hard-and-fast rules 
can be laid down as to which seedlings require to be 
" pricked out," that is, transplanted further apart 
into other receptacles, or beds made up close to the 
glass in frames. There are regulations for most 
greenhouse plants, but hardy or half-hardy garden 
plants are too various for individual mention. To take 
the ten-week stock as an illustration : the seedlings 
should stand an inch apart when first up, or else be 
pricked off to that distance as soon as they can be 
handled, then will need to go two inches apart when 
their side leaves touch. If they are restricted as to 
room they spindle up, and straggly stocks never make 
good bloomers. There are not many plants that can 
thrive when neighbours are pressing upon them. 

The object in raising bedding plants is, of course, 
to get strong, suitable specimens to look well when 
put into the ornamental garden in May, and to start 
blooming as soon as possible. So two prickings-off 
are worth while, if they are called for. Seeds that 
germinate badly produce seedlings that stand naturally 
far from each other ; those can be left alone for weeks 
if they have enough depth of soil for the roots to thrive 
in, and if that soil does not turn sour or " liverworty." 

A lot of nonsense is talked about seedlings that 
" won't transplant." Mignonette seedlings turn red- 
dish foliaged, and drop some leaves, but they survive, 
and perfect carpets have been made again and again 
from doubly-moved units. There used to be a theory 
that poppies could not be pricked off ; now it is 



SEED SOWINGS 157 

generally conceded that " Icelands " are best prepared 
early for bedding out. " Orientals " are offered for sale 
in boxes by the dozen, and plenty of amateur gardeners 
have discovered that, with due care, the giant double 
opium poppies, as well as " Shirleys," can be located 
one by one, just where they are wanted to blossom. 

It is thrilling work, this calling one's own stock of 
perennials, biennials, and annuals into being ; no 
bought plants give quite the same ecstatic sense of 
pride in ownership. And soon the woman gardener 
will know no peace for ambition till she has raised 
roses, shrubs, and permanent climbers, trees too, 
maybe, so that her vegetable children represent the 
tiniest of spreading stone crops and the loftiest of 
heaven-pointing pines- 

Gardening Proverb. — " Where a nettle grows is 
room for a lily.'* 



CHAPTER XV 

SCREENS AND ARBOURS 

" The roof 
Of thickest covert was inwoven shade, 
Laurel and myrtle, and what higher grew 
Of firm and fragrant leaf ; on either side 
Acanthus, and each odorous bushy shrub 
Fenced up the verdant wall : each beauteous flower — 
Iris all hues, roses, and jessamine, 

Reared high their nourished heads between, and wrought 
Mosaic ; underfoot the violet, 
Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich inlay 
Broidered the ground." 

Milton. 

A GARDEN that can be looked over all at once, 
from end to end, is a garden without mystery. 
The defect is more spoiling than might be 
imagined. Whether it is that a plain spread-out floral 
landscape palls on the civilised sight, or that the savage 
element, the untamed rebellion, within each human 
being yearns for hiding-places, who can say ? Beyond 
all doubt, though, the luxuriant vegetation that forms 
obstacles to vision is an invariable want. If we gaze 
our fill at all the flower beauties there are we under- 
estimate their worth ; if there are nooks into which 
we cannot stare at once we conceive great expectations 
of the fair things that lurk there; meanwhile we 
appreciate better the fair things immediately around 
us, because aware that those must be hidden from us 
when we pass the next barrier. A clever gardener 



SCREENS AND ARBOURS 159 

makes use of the weaknesses of human nature, and no 
way more than when she manufactures a little mystery. 
A great writer has said it is one of our most blissful 
deprivations that we cannot get beyond the sunset. 
Mystery on a small scale exists when an evergreen 
shrub stands out on a lawn, or a rockeried bank offers 
only one side to inspection at a time. Mystery on a 
giant scale hovers round a beechwood on a hill summit. 
There have to be little and big virtues in men and 
women, so there should be big and little perfections in a 
garden. 

Our ancestors would no more have finished off a 
garden all of level charm than they would have thought 
of flying. Maybe they introduced too much shade, by 
their plashed alleys, nut-walks, arbours, and the huge 
bushes of robust roses that they cultivated in prefer- 
ence to the severely pruned exhibition dwarfs of to- 
day ; yet their pleasure-grounds must have looked well 
filled in much less time than our neater ones take to 
grow furnished, and the aiming at a luxuriant effect 
resulted in the semi-wild groupings that are highest 
art. 

As use and beauty should be pursued simultaneously, 
it is wise, when remodelling an old garden or planning 
a new one, to reflect exactly what screens are needed, 
and mark these on the paper map of the ground, before 
proceeding to invent screens merely for the making 
of mystery. It may be found finally that the meeting 
of palpable needs will provide enough nooks. The 
back, or one side, of a small or medium-sized house is 
sure to be partly unpleasing, on account of the kitchen 
offices and additional outbuildings. A mansion often 
has a fine old wall shutting off the servants' quarters, 



160 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

yet almost every dwelling possesses something in the 
style of eyesore. There must be a tradesman's entrance 
way to the villa ; generally there is a place where 
washing is hung out, be it only of dusters and kitchen 
towels ; and numbers of picturesque cottages, over 
which a Birket Foster disciple would delight, now 
show that atrocity, the galvanised dust-bin, stood by 
the wall or door. 

If the woman-gardener finds herself called upon to 
put up with a dust-bin — and no doubt she will be — let 
her erect her preliminary " mystery " around it. Not 
much romance in that ? No, but the removal of 
uglinesses is never quite unpoetic. If the objectionable 
sanitary object occupies a position on a tiled path 
the best way to hide it is to envelope it in a square 
of six-foot high trellis woodwork. Usually there is 
a near border, not more than a yard away, for example, 
in which can be planted the Dawson rose and Japanese 
honeysuckle ; common Irish ivy is commendable too, 
for the corner that may be in total shade, or the Japan- 
ese wine-berry will offer an attractive and fruitful 
covering each summer. If the dust-bin is in the inner 
angle of a large trellis screen of the sort, not opposite 
the archway of entrance, it will at once be almost 
undiscernible from the garden. A further improve- 
ment is the nailing a few painted boards against the 
trellis, behind the mesh ; then, indeed, the eyesore 
will have disappeared. 

There is a modernity, and rather odious artificiality, 
about the trellis-work that is bought at the nearest 
ironmonger's ; still, we must not forget that close to 
modern, inartistic buildings it is an affectation to 
despise the carpenter's handiwork. If the dust-bin 



SCREENS AND ARBOURS 161 

is by some dear old country home, then a trellis cover- 
ing it can have all the same, but one built of natural 
branches of wood, either stripped or with the bark 
on. Even chopped-up bean faggots will make a 
rustic trellis, partly nailed together, partly tied by 
tarred string, and anybody can manufacture either 
of these screens, which are the worthier for being 
without any set pattern, irregular as to top line, sides, 
and mesh. The real difficulty is in fixing the screen 
securely when most of it, if not all, has to stand on a 
tiled path, none of the props or poles being thrust into 
the earth. Nails and wire fastenings can be given on 
all the wall sides, though, and even a guy-rope, drawn 
taut and pegged down in an adjoining bed or border, 
quickly becomes hidden if a common hop is planted 
to run up it. 

Rustic wood screens are much prettier than the usual 
shop-made trellis, against the kitchen door, to separate 
front and back gardens, in the side alley ; wire netting 
has its merits there too, stretched between stout deal 
poles, all painted green to match, or white if the house 
is a red and white villa. But why are there not more 
rockeried banks used for this position, with screens of 
hardy shrubs, trained up to espalier supports, along 
their summits ? 

When doing something to hide away kitchen environs 
the woman gardener has her chance to do something 
also for the comfort of the kitchen occupants. Servants 
are unavoidably kept more indoors than they should 
be, so if they can sit out sewing, within hearing of 
bells, if they can feel that there are nooks for them as 
well as for their employers, flowers that they may 
partly tend, and also gather, they will benefit both in 

M 



162 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

health and spirits. The erections made to enclose 
the outbuildings can serve to support climbers of 
blossom and perfume : sweet peas, that grow nine and 
ten feet tall when properly fed, honeysuckles and roses, 
too, that only require planting once. 

Occasionally a suburban garden is spoilt by the 
presence near of a wall, or hoarding, plastered over 
with bills, or covered by permanent advertisement 
posters. This means that only a very tall screen will 
meet the evil. The best of all to set up is a row of 
pine poles, as high as needed, only a foot apart. On 
the back of these wire netting, painted brown, will 
hardly show, but give climbing hops an excellent hold- 
by. In addition to the common perennial hop there 
is a golden-leaved variety, and the variegated annual 
hops, perhaps canary creeper too, can be added each 
April. If the garden owner wishes to combine use 
with both profit and beauty she can utilise the screen- 
support for the culture of the loganberry, or any other 
of the fruiting brambles. Virginian creepers, of the 
large-leaved, rapid-growing species, can safely be 
added ; brambles will jut out from them, hops twine 
with them. The poles can generally be bought by the 
dozen or half-hundred from a builder-supplying wood- 
yard. If the cost of this erection will be too great 
something can be done with clothes-props and the 
old fish-netting sold for garden use — a hundred yards, 
six feet wide, for ten shillings. 

Screening off the windows of neighbouring houses 
has always to be delicately performed. Use is often 
made of hurdles (called wattles in some parts of 
the country), but these are very darkening in effect, 
and have a depressing appearance when old or 



SCREENS AND ARBOURS 163 

rain-sodden, so, where possible, white painted boards 
should be put up instead. A length of green, rot- 
proof canvas, stretched between poles six feet above 
the ground, will often hide an ugliness or make a screen 
from observation, while leaving space below for the 
passage of light and air. By the time a white clematis 
montana and a Felicite* Perpetue rose have climbed 
the supports and had their branches fastened out to 
the canvas, the feature will be a genuine improvement 
to any portion of the pleasure-grounds. Indeed, across 
side-alleys, or in front gardens alongside tradesmen's 
walks, to give additional height to fences, to prevent 
back lawns from being overlooked, fences made of 
this canvas are extremely satisfactory, so long as they 
are put up with sufficient poles to prevent their bulging 
unduly in a wind. The material is manufactured for 
tents, and is consequently very strong. A fair imita- 
tion can be cheaply made of the coarse canvas sold 
for servants' aprons, painted on both sides with green 
varnish-paint. This enables the dullest and least 
obtrusive shades of green to be chosen. Climbers 
can be literally sewn to canvas, by green raffia, or 
worsted, and seem to take quite kindly to the back- 
ground. 

Within the garden itself may be ugly spots to screen 
off. The greenhouse stoke-holes, for instance, the 
manure pit, or the waste ground that paid gardeners 
often insist upon having to store flower-pots and other 
items upon. When narrow borders can be dug close, 
and hedges of the handsome Penzance briar roses 
planted, the work is permanently done. Common 
laurel may be fallen back upon as hedge material in 
shade or poor stony ground that is not to be improved, 



164 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

for a decent hedge of it can be gained, albeit in a gravel 
walk. One secret of success is planting the young 
laurels in a narrow ditch or drill, so that their roots 
will be some inches below the level ; this ensures their 
receiving plenty of water, without which they cannot 
make rapid headway. 

The manure pit should always be hedged round by 
giant annual sunflowers, which are said to purify the 
soil ; a belt of the tallest perennial sunflowers may 
well come next, or Japanese roses, so inexpensive and 
vigorous, could be in front of the sun-loving giants. 
But those are not the only plants that are fit for screen- 
making : mulleins are beautiful, especially the white 
foliaged, six-foot verbascum pannosum, the silver- 
leaved eight-foot verbascum giganteum, or the coppery- 
gold spiked verbascum densiflorum. These noble 
specimens may be bought for sixpence each, less by the 
dozen. Then there are hollyhocks and perennial 
larkspurs, a wonderful five-foot branching magenta 
mallow (malva Alcea), ornamental rhubarbs (gun- 
neras) of six feet, a relative of the seakales, crambe 
cordifolia, of prodigious foliage and vast panicles of 
white blossom, the North American bugbane (cimici- 
fuga cordifolia), feathery and cream- white, five feet, 
fairly hardy six-foot bamboos, such as bambusa 
Metake, or the ten-foot bambusa Simoni, the two-yard 
high goat's-beard, astilbe grandis, rather like an 
immense meadowsweet, various monkshoods, for those 
to plant who are not too much in awe of poisonous 
roots, the splendid foliaged knotweed of creamy 
florescence, nine-foot polygonum cuspidatum, and all 
colours in everlasting peas. 

Screens on the tops of walls and fences have to be 



SCREENS AND ARBOURS 165 

provided in most suburban gardens, unless the 
neighbours are to enjoy a complete view of the pleasure 
ground and its occupants. Bye-laws seldom sanction 
the building of boundary walls above five feet in 
altitude, and the added elevation has generally to 
pretend not to be solid. Finest meshed wire-netting, 
painted white or pale green, will not darken the appear- 
ance of the garden, but is not much of a screen until 
climbers have grown thoroughly along it, yet the 
wooden trellis has just as many peepholes, while 
costing double and looking heavy. The netting is 
best put up with lengths of old gas-piping painted to 
match, the props put close against the wall's buttresses, 
and sunk some distance in the soil because of the force 
of wind they must help the netting to sustain. Japanese 
honeysuckle with roses on the sunny aspect, ivy and 
yellow jasmine on the coldest, the evergreen Virginian 
creeper with clematises on the east or west, with 
Japanese roses too, will be found most satisfactory. A 
full description of this class of rose will be found in a 
chapter devoted to the subject of the garden of 
shadow. 

Another wall elevator consists of lengths of deal, 
say three feet long and six inches wide, nailed upright 
to the bricks, six inches of their wood being below the 
level. If put six inches apart, then given a continuous 
horizontal bar of similar width for finish, an inch or 
two beneath their tops, they afford as near an imitation 
of close hoarding as most local regulations will allow. 
By skilfully training climbers on the pyramid principle, 
fostering the main upright stems by checking side 
growth until the desired height is reached, and seeing 
that both these stems and top branches are nailed 



166 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

straight up against the gaps in the woodwork,. a total 
screen is most quickly created. 

Fish-netting may be extended, between poles, 
along a wall or fence, to fasten summer climbers 
to, or for tendrils to clutch. A novel expedient is 
to set up a succession of deep wooden boxes, of the 
window-box kind, just below the wall's coping, to 
make an unbroken line, then grow in these dwarf 
shrubs, snapdragons, red and white valerian, wall- 
flowers, any sufficiently hardy and bushy subjects, 
in fact. Watering will have to be done thoroughly 
every dry day of summer, twice daily in the hottest 
spells, and liquid manures should be applied once a 
fortnight. 

Screens at the end of lawns should not be unbroken 
when the turf lies flush with the horizon as seen from 
house windows, unless the lawn is but a minor portion 
of the garden width. The strip garden lawn, if so 
ended, should show a grass path leading under an arch 
somewhere in the screen, by no means necessarily in 
the precise middle of the erection. Rustic wood 
espaliers, as high as the climbers will cover, are always 
pleasing. Here again the Japanese rose comes in 
usefully, supposing the position to be shady or 
draughty, too shut-in by buildings, or the soil too poor 
or too heavy. Otherwise any of the splendid climbing 
roses, clematises, jasmines, bindweeds, tropaeolums, 
wistarias, Japanese quinces can be exulted in. There 
is much to be said in praise of evergreen shrubs nailed 
to rude espalier supports, for countless places where 
screens improve the garden scene ; in quite unfortunate 
spots the variegated euonymus so employed will 
make a close boundary bit long before a hedge of it 



SCREENS AND ARBOURS 167 

could attain sufficient thickness combined with height. 
For slightly better positions the handsome, berried, 
spotted laurels (aucubas) make an ever shining, 
lightsome display, or the golden privet will positively 
glow like sunshine when the sun remains invisible, and 
compete with sunrays when they are bestowed. 

A screen made of a number of different evergreen 
flowering shrubs will soon be looked on as a welcome 
feature : escallonias, bush-honeysuckles (weigelas) 
mountain-sprays, (ceanothuses), veronicas, variegated 
Japanese honeysuckle, and barberries are loveliest so 
shown off. There are variegated veronicas and bush- 
honeysuckles that are doubly meritorious, and the all 
gold-leaved weigela Looymansi aurea generally carries 
its glory all the year, especially when nailed up. 

Arbours, after all, are but screens in a rounded, 
semi-oval, half -oblong, or square shape. They become 
dense with time ; they are roofed in simply by their 
own luxuriance, or are helped to form ceilings by just 
some slight bending, interlacing, and tying of the 
materials used for side and back support. The dear 
old homely runner bean, on its lofty faggots, will make 
as fair an arbour as eye can wish to see, and should be 
so grown wherever the vegetable, or the plant, meets 
with just appreciation. " Painted lady " is the red 
and white bloomer, but the orange vermilion flower is 
the more telling colour. 

Just as the beans are cultivated so may annual 
convolvuluses and nasturtiums be, in full sunshine. A 
pretty achievement will reward the gardener who 
takes the trouble to paint bean faggots pale green or 
white, then bends and inserts them to form an arbour 
shape, on which to display that grand rampant half- 



168 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

hardy annual climber cobsea scandens, whose name of 
purple bellflower is too easily confused with the 
campanula family. Annual ? No, that is doing the 
cobsea an injustice. It is perennial under glass, lives 
out against walls in some south-coast gardens, but is 
not to be expected to survive winters elsewhere, 
though it will flower to the very last possible minute, 
weathering moderate frosts, continuing to form its 
fascinating green buds, that open into greeny-cream 
blooms, then go through wonderful mauvy trans- 
formations before attaining their characteristic purple. 
There is a white variety, the sole objection to which is 
that it does not go through these captivating stages. 

A trio of firs on a lawn, a yard apart, will not make 
a real screen ; at the back of them plant a hedge of 
golden privet, however, and the vision will infallibly 
be pleased by being tricked into the first belief that the 
barrier is not a solid one. By placing two firs, any of 
the graceful spiral conifers, close against the sides of a 
rambler rose arbour a charming effect is secured, the 
sentinel evergreens serving as strong contrast to the 
blossom colour. Arbours are mostly as much the 
many-seasons' toil of loving gardeners as are the 
Japanese dwarfed trees that, from their minute pots, 
see generations of their owners age. As a fine picture 
is not the work of an hour, day, week, or month, so 
the sweetbriar, ivy, honeysuckle, or jasmine arbour 
cannot be hurried. Rambler roses, representative of 
a rapid century, enable the eager gardener to soonest 
rival the old-world nooks of renown. It is to be hoped 
that no woman, on entering upon possession of an 
ancient garden, would dream of destroying any single 
arbour in it, no matter how earwiggy it may be, or 



SCREENS AND ARBOURS 169 

where it stands, and spreads, and makes shadow. It 
is so much easier to pull down than to set up, and we 
are all the better for being of conservative principles in 
affairs of art. 

Gardening Proverb. — " The moon is fairest when not 
revealing all her face at once. It's only the braying 
donkey who always turns to be noticed/' 



CHAPTER XVI 



BEAUTIFUL BEDDING OUT 

" Dispose 
The ruddy paeony with the lighter rose, 
The monk's-hood with the bugloss, and entwine 
The white, the blue, the flesh-like columbine 
With pinks, sweet Williams, that far off the eye 
Could not the manner of their mixtures spy." 

Browne. 



T 



u t~ "^AHERE is nothing new under the sun" 
cannot be said of British garden filling. 
Plants come to us direct from lands of 
their birth where nobody thinks of bedding them 
out ; to us is given their juxtaposition in pat- 
terns, or their congregation without apparent method. 
Other civilised kingdoms receive the same plants, 
but, so astoundingly limitless are the designs that 
can be made out of mere lines, who can believe 
that we may not display novel arrangements ? The 
old-fashioned striped cream-and-green grass of our 
borders is called " Match-me-if-you-can," because no 
person has ever yet discovered two of its sword-shaped 
blades that are identically marked. And does it not 
seem sure that if we searched the gardens of all lands 
we should not light upon another flower-bed of the 
design Fig. 59, for instance ? When the slightest 
deviation of outline alters a whole scheme there is not 
much likelihood of its being reproduced elsewhere. 



BEAUTIFUL BEDDING OUT 171 

As to the chance for finding a colour replica, as well 
as a form replica, that is remote indeed. 

The more beautiful originality we can create in our 
gardens the larger our claims upon the world's grati- 
tude. Oh, we may not be thanked, but some praises 
are sure to drift our way ; gossip behind our backs will 
envy, and, besides the jealous beings who sneer, there 
will be others, of kindlier dispositions, who will grate- 
fully " borrow notions/ ' and so extend our sphere of 
benefit. Artists are bound to be zealous for the 
outside world's improvement, not only keen on getting 
famous, or showing superior talents. 

The more one studies garden-making the more plainly 
does one recognise how the art is falsely and foolishly 
gabbled about ! It is perilously easy to become 
vulgarly aesthetic. Carpet-bedding has been vetoed as 
a desecration of Nature, for instance, but who wants 
" Nature undefiled " just under the windows, or by the 
front door ? May it not be agreed that a thicket of 
blackberry bushes, a field of poppies and tall grass, by 
a villa's verandah would be as vulgar as an elaborate 
carpet-bed at the edge of a forest ? Then is it not as 
undeniable that the jungle and meadow effects would 
have been perfectly suitable by the woodland, and the 
trim mosaic of blossom as legitimately fair against the 
ornate specimen of modern building ? Then, too, 
carping critics accuse us of distorting plants when we 
force them to occupy given spaces in pattern beds. 
Nothing can be further from the truth. A Japanese 
dwarfed pine is distorted, so are the plain evergreen 
hedges that are sheared like sheep, to keep them within 
bounds ; but setting violas in a line, or miniature 
sweet alyssum in little rounds and curves, lobelia in 



172 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

crosses, crimson-leaved iresine in stars, in no way 
restricts the habitual growth of the plants themselves. 
Certainly we do cut down golden feather once or twice 
during summer, to prevent its becoming a foot and 
a half tall, going to white blossom, and exhibiting stems 
rather than leaves ; we may clip the alyssum's dead 
bloom away to induce a fresh yield, but if these prac- 
tices are " philistine," then the lawns must be left 
unmown. 

If the woman gardener is careful never to introduce 
scientific flower-setting where Nature reigns alone, 
she will thoroughly acquit herself from the charge of 
vulgarising a scene. Beside all evidences of human 
handicraft the symmetrical use of flowers and leaves 
is justified, and where Man dominates in lieu of Nature, 
Man — including Woman — is entitled to bend trees, 
shrubs, and plants to human service. 

Individual taste is another matter altogether : if 
she loves a sown patch of poppies, grasses, and corn- 
flowers better than a blend of sub-tropical palms, and 
coleuses, begonias (that nobody cares to call either 
elephant's ear or beefsteak plant), fuchsias and gazanias, 
fig marigolds from the Canary Isles and New Zealand, 
stonecrops from North America, club mosses from Fiji, 
scabiouses from the Caucasus, soapworts from off Swiss 
mountains, dragons '-heads from Siberia, larkspurs 
brought from the Pyrenees, why should she not follow 
after her unambitious fancy ? But the zealot for 
simple living is never content without raving against 
a neighbour's indulgences, and a devotee of natural, 
or wild, gardening is regrettably inclined to call her 
own point of view the only decent one — which condition 
of mind is the source of all vulgarity, by-the-bye. 



BEAUTIFUL BEDDING OUT 



173 



All pattern-bed fillings may be classed as carpet - 
bedding, yet there is a beautiful simplicity in some 
designs, while in more complicated ones we weary soon 
of the obvious straining after effect. In public parks 
examples are often given of beds in which too much 
has been attempted. The suggestions offered by the 
plates of this book do not include any of the designs 




Fig. 57. Bedding Out in an Oblong. 

that are troublesomely intricate either to manufacture 
or observe. 

The design of Fig. 57 can be carried out in a variety 
of blends, but was intended for a viola bed chiefly, 
and looks charming rilled thus : A, mauve and yellow 
carnations, some of the constant-blooming type, 
perhaps the annual marguerite strain, some the named 
border carnations dear to connoisseurs in the plant ; 
B, yellow violas ; C, purple violas ; the four large dot- 
plants, D, burning-bushes (kochia tricophylla) ; the 
twelve dot-plants, E, crimson beet. 



174 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

A very showy bed results from planting in accordance 
with the design Fig. 58, using the following " stuff " : 
A, crimson beet ; B, gold calceolarias ; C, white dwarf 
asters, with star tips of crimson iresine ; D, a carpet 




Fig. 58. A striking Star Design. 

of the pink catchfly (silene compacta rosea) ; and the 
edging, E, golden feather, or a yellow miniature 
viola. There are several colours in these violettas, 
as they are called. The very uncommon, probably 
unduplicated, design, Fig. 59, rather brings to mind 
bunches of purple grapes within a conventionalised 
vine-leaf strioped of its peaks,_so it would be as well 



BEAUTIFUL BEDDING OUT 175 

to keep to almost suitable colourings, thus : A, dark 
red and gold coleuses ; B, red-mauve stocks, or dwarf 
asters ; C, golden-feather, with the dot-plants of purple 
pigmy asters or else violas ; and the edge, D, mossy 




Fig. 59. The Bunches of Grapes Design. 

saxifrage of any sort, just to provide the summer 
cushions of green after early bloom. But if the bed 
were made in grass, not gravel, the verdant line would 
not show up sufficiently, so one of the silvery-grey 
ice-plant (mesembryanthemum crystallinum), might 
well be substituted. 

Figures 60 and 61 are two examples of flower shapes 
within beds. Fig. 60 gives pleasure by its perfectly 



176 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

graceful curves and absence of all elaboration, but if it 
were wished to construct a more decorative pattern bed 
nothing would be easier than to dot the carpet over with 
a contrasting colour, as grounds, or " fields " of one 




Fig. 60. A Flower-shaped Filling. 

tint are diapered with another in heraldic scutcheons, 
and to shade the blossom-like centre from a deep hue, 
through a pale one, to white edges. As it stands it 
may be charmingly carried out in gold at A, white 
at B, and scarlet at C, which could be achieved in many 
ways, but notably with calceolarias, white violas, and 
lilliputian vermilion nasturtiums. Fig. 61 can be 



BEAUTIFUL BEDDING OUT 177 

done with: A, tree fuchsia, B, white geranium, C, 
salmon geranium, D, pale mauve viola, E, dark purple 
viola. 

The ribbon bed has probably been with us since bed- 




Fig. 61. The Divided Blossom Design. 

ding-out was sampled first, and no doubt it always will 
be, adaptable as the scheme is to any shaped space. 
Fig. 62 exhibits the belts, or ribbons, stopping to 
leave room for a centre round. This would please 
if the colours ranged from black-maroon through 
crimsons to palest pink, but for a delicate, opalescent 

N 



178 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

effect it should be made thus : A, begonia semper- 
florens salmon queen ; B, cream violas ; C, pale azure 
violas ; D, the silvery ice-plant ; E, the little shell-pink 
catchfly (silene compacta bijou) ; F, the Tom Thumb 
nasturtium, Pearl ; G, pale blue lobelia. Of course 




Fig. 62. A Ribbon Bed. 

countless other pale-hued flowers would answer the 
same purpose. Fig. 63 is a long-pointed oval, to suit the 
garden of curves, not of angles. It can be made with 
pale pink Drummond's phlox, pegged down, after 
being nipped at the top shoots to cause it to spread, 
and the other plants could be brown calceolarias. It 
shows how in some beds there need be no real pattern 
drawing, but the whole design can be carried out by 
the setting of dot-plants, in lines, upon a previously 
planted carpet, or one sprung up from seed-sowing on 



BEAUTIFUL BEDDING OUT 



179 



the spot. Figures 64 and 65 illustrate this in two ob- 
longs, the commonest of all shapes to be seen ready cut 




Fig. 63. A Design with Dot Plants. 

in lawns or gravel. The show will be quite delightful 
if, in Fig. 64, the larger dot plants are silver-leaved, 
cineraria maritima being a good choice, the smaller 









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Fig. 64. A Pattern of Dot Plants. 

ones deep crimson, iresine being the best selection for 
that, and if gold violas are used for the groundwork A. 
The design lends itself equally to the use of four carpet 



180 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

colours, one in each corner, or to a non-level repetition 
of only two. 

Of the same order of bed, but doubly edged, is Fig. 
65. Supposing dwarf white asters formed the centre 
portion, towered over by little gay green palms, the 
first bordering might be of gold nasturtiums with dark 
foliage, the second of one of the vermilion varieties of 
begonia semperflorens, or the lilliput red nasturtium. 




Fig. 65. A simple Long Bed Filling. 

Noteworthy colour blends are sure to delight visitors. 
Light blue, of the forget-me-not kind, and peach 
mauve, violet and royal blue, or red-purple and pale 
lavender, are singularly genial companions when 
united in the flower family : the green of foliage acts 
as an extra colour, softening the blend. Pale rose- 
pink and scarlet too are delightful in the same flower- 
bed when the pink flowers have large yellow centres, as 
have single asters or single dahlias, or if clear yellow 
companions, lemon Iceland poppies, maybe, are 
admitted. 

Other colour harmonies that are not commonly 
seen, nor can be blamed as garish innovations, are 
maroon with salmon and grey-green, orange with 



BEAUTIFUL BEDDING OUT 181 

indigo, magenta with cream and black-purple., sky- 
blue with wild-rose pink, and copper foliage. 

A word must be said about the technical work of 
bedding-out. It should not be done in desperately 
wet weather, because young roots find a difficulty in 
catching hold of cool, cloggy soil ; scorching sunshine 
is bad, but if the labour is performed in the evening- 
time the plants will have partly recovered from the 
shift by the following mid-day. Should that prove 
devastatingiy hot, as spring days occasionally are, 
newspaper coverings, or inverted pots, should be put 
over the more fragile plants till sundown. 

Firm setting is needed by all plants, but that does 
not mean the surface of the beds should be pummelled 
hard : two fingers are usually enough to press the soil 
firm just at the base of a plant's stem, and to make 
sure thereby that no cavity has been left below the 
roots — an accident, or carelessness, that spells failure. 
A watering through a fine-rosed can is always given, 
for this refreshes the foliage, even when the sub-soil is 
nicely moist. All plants that are likely to need sup- 
porting sticks ought to receive them at once. Never 
mind if the appearance of the beds is rather bristly. 
Growth will be upright, instead of bent, also more 
rapid, owing to the props. 

The planning of exquisite harmonies is just as im- 
portant as the culture of prize specimens to produce 
them — more essential, in fact, since the grandest 
blossoms will not look lovely if they are visibly fighting 
for supremacy of effect, and killing one another. 

Greenhouse favourites may be turned out for the 
summer : the slate-blue leadwort, or plumbago, show 
and regal pelargoniums, lantanas, that are something 



182 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

like verbenas, but mostly of orange shades, spotted 
and tigered mimuluses, with star cinerarias and the 
constant-blossoming primula obconicas, if the garden 
is in a warm county. But often the finest triumphs 
are won with the simplest, most homely, flowers. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Colours and children need to 
be kept in^their places. " 



CHAPTER XVII 



GLADES AND PERGOLAS 

" In green old gardens, hidden away 
From sight of revel and sound of strife,-^ 
Here have I leisure to breathe and move, 
And to do my work in a nobler way : 
To sing my songs, and to say my say, 
To dream my dreams, and to love my love ; 
To hold my faith, and to live my life, 
Making the most of its shadowy day." 

Violet Fane. 



G 



" ^->| REEN old gardens ! "—Is not the truth too 
commonly overlooked that it is for their 
lavish " greenth," rather than for their 
greater amount of blossom, that ancient gardens so 
unkindly rival new ones ? There may be sheets of 
gay bedding plants, wide and long borders teeming with 
all the gorgeous hues under the sun, but these splen- 
dours have their drawbacks ; garishness may displease, 
even fine contrasts, too often repeated, affront, and 
chastening green, noted for refreshing the eye, is, 
maybe unconsciously, longed for. 

One of the worthiest reasons for making glades is 
that there is almost sure to be plenty of green, since 
plants of noble height, or plants that climb, are seldom 
leaf-hidden by bloom as are so many of our bedding 
favourites. Flowering shrubs, too, owe quite half 
their charm to the prodigality with which they have 
been gifted with foliage. In early spring we can be 



184 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

thankful for the daphne, prunus varieties, and other 
trees or shrubs which clothe their otherwise naked 
branches with bloom, for there is not enough flores- 
cence at that early time ; we should probably feel 
angry with summer ornaments that refused leafage, 
but Nature never blunders, so the foliage and flowers 
come then all together, while the spring pioneers of 
blossom have turned themselves into green or bronze 
bushes to add to the universal charm. A glade may 
be important or slight, but it should be long ; though 
it can be made with stretches of low plants between 
shrubs or under trees, it can also consist of trees or 
shrubs itself, or giants of the herbaceous kingdom, or 
supported climbers. An avenue is nothing but a very 
broad and tall glade. 

The woman who sets herself meditating over the 
different glades she might create will soon find her 
desires overlapping the possibilities of her garden, 
be its size what it may. Yet dreams of loveliness are 
never time wasted ; the mind is strengthened, the 
heart cheered, the soul raised by the mere discovery 
how exquisite earth might become. She will be 
wise if she keeps a pencil in hand and notes down 
stray ideals, for those can be passed on to other 
gardeners. 

What of a couple of rows of almond trees, one on either 
side of a flagged path — just grey flagstones, please — 
or, failing that, asphalte that will become pale in time — 
no chessboard tiles of slate and red, or buff and black ! 
Under the trees can be bushes of the holly-leaved bar- 
berry (barberis aquifolium), that is always shinily 
deep emerald, or crimson-stained of leaf, and has lemon- 
yellow early blossom, and violet-blue fruits to follow. 



GLADES AND PERGOLAS 185 

Between these may rise lines of pink Japanese wind- 
flowers and hybrid pyrethrums of the same wild-rose 
shade, to compensate for the falling of almond bloom ; 
and no carpet could be better than one of variegated 
arabis in places, and the pink crane's bill (geranium 
Endressii) in others. Will not such a glade be a 
permanent delight ? After the almond petals are 
scattered will appear the round fruits, dressed at first 
in red velvet, becoming green and hard later, when the 
boughs are all bearing their best foliage masses. Winter 
will possess barberry colour and the variegation, creamy 
yellow and grey-green, of the arabis or rock cress, that 
will commence budding as soon as February, to become 
a sheet of snow in March and April. 

Hollyhocks will make a glade ; so will annual giant 
Russian sunflowers if a temporary one is desired ; as 
for mulleins and all shades in blue perennial larkspurs, 
in company, words fail to praise adequately the fairness 
of that harmony. Hollyhocks of mixed colours, 
raised from a good strain of seed, show myriads of 
hues, all beautiful, and the whole soil around them 
should be covered with mixed violas. If the gardener 
has not sufficient leisure to keep such a wealth of the 
bedding pansies from going to seed she can treat them 
somewhat ruthlessly, just clip them off short twice 
in the summer, using shears, and sacrificing buds as 
well as seed-vessels. After three or four weeks they 
will be blossoming again, better than ever, strength- 
ened because those wasted buds did not have to be 
brought out as debutantes. 

Our great-grandmothers were extremely fond of nut 
glades, and those formed by clipped hedges. We do 
not like to wait as many years for our garden triumphs, 



186 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

and few of us are so fortunate as to inherit green alleys. 
However, the box-thorns, or lyciums, are extremely 
rapid climbing shrubs, not showy of blossom, but so 
graceful in drooping growth, so prettily berried, that 
they seem endeavouring to atone for the insignificance 
of white and purple flowers. It is said that lycium 
Europaeum will take kindly to any soil and can be 
trusted to speedily cover high walls, or make prodigious 
hedges, only a few props being needed, as great healthy 
suckers sprout by dozens from the roots. Lycium 
Chilense is believed to ramp aloft sooner than any of 
the varieties, but the European representative is 
cheaper ; it costs only twelve and sixpence for a hun- 
dred, once-transplanted, specimens. Against the grey- 
green of this shrub scarlet Oriental poppies and ver- 
milion phloxes might be set out in rows, on a ground- 
work of yellow alyssum for spring, and of creeping 
Jenny for summer and autumn. 

Of course glades may be made of pillar-supported 
roses and clematises, a lovely scheme this where the 
path between is of turf and not more than three feet 
wide. To walk along it, with the horizon seen through 
branches of yellow, pink, white, carmine, mauve, purple, 
blue, apricot, scarlet, salmon, lilac, violet, blush, and 
lemon, and the sky above visible only as a streak of 
azure, will be a frequent midsummer treat. The 
pillars look best in a double row, one between the other, 
but some behind, some forward, upon each side, and 
the ground might be planted with lots of dwarf hardy 
subjects, to repeat the overhead hues, Iceland poppies, 
violas, pinks, crane's-bills, catchflys, potentillas, double 
daisies, harebells, London pride, soapworts, yarrows, 
and sweet woodruff. 



GLADES AND PERGOLAS 187 

Really glades can be constructed out of so many 
materials that to draw attention to any threatens neglect 
of the rest. Japanese honeysuckles, trim pyramidal 
conifers, feathery tamarisks, wet-soil loving bamboos 
and giant knotweeds, lilacs, mock orange trees, red- 
hot pokers, sweet peas, chimney bellflowers, common 
laurel or variegated aucubas, red-stemmed willows that 
are of exquisite beauty as they rise rapidly each year 
from the cut-back stools, majestic bracken-fern by the 
edge of a woodland, fruiting brambles, briar roses 
grown as hedges, gorses, brooms, golden and cut- 
leaved elders, guelder roses, silver birches, laburnums, 
hawthorns, and rhododendrons. 

Another variety of glade may claim our attention for 
a minute ; it is created by cutting an opening through 
a shrubbery and strewing the earth left exposed with 
the rosy-azure of the bluebell, the cool, sweet lemon- 
cream of the primrose, or clothing the expanse in 
garden blossoms, such as double daisies, yarrows, blue 
bugle, tulip reds, marigold orange, or the yellows, 
mauves, and violets of the pansy. The suggestion has, 
however, been offered earlier, when the making of 
shrubberies was dealt with. Wood anemones are 
hardy, though they appear so fragile ; the yellow 
Welsh poppy takes very kindly to a semi-shady spot 
where it may propagate itself freely ; the evergreen 
perennial candytuft (iberis sempervirens) will supply a 
white ground mantle glistening like a glacier. 

In woods of beech or other trees the grassy or mossy 
glades are of indescribable value ; under deciduous 
trees of the garden grass does not thrive well, so creep- 
ing ivies are often well employed for a green effect. 
St. John's^wort — the old English tutsan and French 



188 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

all-heal — can be recommended as a floral display, or 
glade carpets may be made with periwinkles, sweet 
woodruff, and London pride, that most adaptable of 
saxifrages. The glade that comes into existence when 
a kitchen garden path has a line of runner beans down 
each side is not to be despised as a beautiful feature. 

Pergolas may be divided into two ranks, that of the 
permanent, that of the passing. The one-summer 
specimen gives shade during the months that want 
shade, and leaves the site unshadowed during the months 
that want all the sun there is ; it enables the gardener 
to specialise in half-hardy climbers, that have been 
raised early under glass, or purchased at the end of 
May, as well as in the hardier annuals that succeed 
from April outdoor sowings, the dear old familiar 
convolvuluses, nasturtiums, and canary creeper. Some 
women will hold that the labour of erecting a temporary 
pergola is not worth while, and are fully entitled to 
their opinion ; others will seize upon this chance of 
obtaining a fresh effect, or of giving height where the 
level of vegetation was too uniform. Clothes-props 
are cheap, of the rough sort, not the carpenter's square- 
edged deal contrivances ; they should have the ends 
tarred for a foot up, then be inserted that depth in the 
soil, to serve for pillars. Thinner tree boughs, of 
straight or crooked shapes, must be nailed across for 
roofing beams, but between the pairs of poles, and across 
and across for a leafy ceiling to be formed upon, out- 
stretched wires, or stout string, blind-cord maybe, 
will suffice. Some stones put into the holes dug to 
receive the poles, wedged firm against them by mallet 
or hammer, will help to keep them steady in gales, 
and the earth must, of course, be beaten hard above. 



GLADES AND PERGOLAS 189 

Half-hardy climbers that will live and bloom during 
the summer and autumn, in the averagely warm garden, 
include cobaea scandens, purple and white, the Chilian 
glory-flower (eccremocarpus scaber), orange vermilion, 
or eccremocarpus scaber roseus, its salmon-pink variety, 
all the ornamental gourds, with their remarkable fruits 
resembling pears, eggs, oranges, bottles, hedgehogs, 
etc., the queer syphon gourd, from which calabash 
pipes are made, Japanese variegated hops, lophos- 
pernum scandens, a deep rose trumpet-shaped flower, 
among gayest green maple-shaped leaves, the hyacinth 
beans (dolichos Lablab), purple, white, or violet blue, 
an orange-red twiner, named cajophora laterita, and 
the bright tropaeolum lobbianum varieties. Sweet 
peas, and the azure four-foot annual pea (lathyrus 
sativus azureus) can be used for pillar decoration, 
though not tall enough to make the roofs. 

A lasting pergola must be thoroughly well built, or 
it becomes a trouble instead of a pleasure. Two kinds 
stand out as superior to others, the rustic pergola, 
with natural wood, either peeled or with the bark left 
on, and the slender pergola, of Italian style, that can 
be made of painted iron. The latter need not be 
costly ; spent gas-piping is quite fit for its material. 
Strong wires, painted to match the pillars and cross- 
bars, can support the climbers along the sides. The 
woman gardener, when superintending the erection, 
should see that deep sockets are made of bricks to 
receive the poles in the earth, that these bricks are 
properly " laid," and that the spaces within the squares 
they outline are filled in with strong cement to harden 
around the pillars. 

The shape of a pergola is the most important 



igo EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

characteristic. Let all square or smooth-topped round 
tunnels be avoided like stinging-nettles ; uneven, or 
even symmetrically jutting out bits of framework, 
at sides and top, will prevent the atrocious severity 
of contour too often seen. A pergola ought not to 
resemble a shooting gallery, nor a series of horse-boxes. 

Then height is a crucial question. Though a small 
garden can look mean because an enormously lofty 
pergola has been set up in it this is a most rare evil ; 
as a rule pergolas are mean themselves for lack of 
height. They may run straight, then the vista view 
between the pillars will be a delightful study in per- 
spective, or they may undulate, following winding 
paths, and then they are full of winning mystery. 
In some pleasure grounds the two styles can be com- 
bined, the pergola running in long waves, or twisting 
and turning for some distance, then suddenly taking 
to a straight path ; and beyond the tiny arch, dwarfed 
to vision, that ends its green and floriferous colonnade, 
should be a comfortable seat within an arbour. 

As to colour, tastes must decide, but a white-painted 
pergola satisfies even the most critical eye when given 
up to yellow, orange, buff, apricot, and variegated 
foliage climbers ; a green one is a fine contrast for 
pink and crimson roses, while the rustic one generally 
pleases most when canopied by a profusion of hues 
as well as of blossoms. 

A protest is needed against the folly of building 
pergolas over the main walks from front gates to front 
doors : so many suburban villas show these now, and 
no doubt the owners have aimed at giving a " real 
country" air to the scene, above the builders' tile paths, 
and close by gas-lamps ! Visitors approaching the 



GLADES AND PERGOLAS 191 

house cannot carry their umbrellas, without serious 
risk to them, under the dripping branches ; callers 
at night often blunder into dark thickets of thorny 
stems, or are in danger of having their eyes put out 
by obtruding boughs. 

The borders under pergola pillars may be wide, or 
may have to be narrow, but the colours of the flowers 
in them must be sedulously selected, to correspond 
with those of the blossoms above. Special combinations 
generally please ; lilies of different species may be 
placed against each pole and the more open side lengths 
be given up to carnations beneath clematises ; a 
rambler rose-covered pergola will probably be suited 
by borders of ivy-leaved geraniums, verbenas, stocks, 
asters, and sweet alyssum. Pansies flourish in the 
partial shade afforded. 

Very pretty is the show to be gained by having only 
hops, ivies of fine sorts, Japanese honeysuckles, and 
other climbers more for leaf than flower, with traveller's 
joy at intervals, and wide borders devoted to briar 
roses, including the Austrian copper and yellow, as 
well as the blush, white, pink, and crimson, sweet- 
scented Penzance briars ; the hardiest of dwarf hybrid 
perpetual roses being represented one in each chief side 
opening. 

All white climbers, on a slender pergola painted pale 
green, with white and lemon-yellow flowers beneath, 
act as seemingly miraculous brighteners for a garden 
that is dreary, or will do wonders to tone down the 
crudeness of a new red-brick, red- tiled villa. There 
are dull white houses, massed about with too luxuriant 
a supply of dark evergreens, that will respond, almost 
with smiles, to the coming of a pergola over which 



192 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

scarlet and orange blossoming plants ramble above 
a ground-bordering of gold and salmon, cream, and 
azure blue. 

Arches have been described as pergolas in pieces. 
They partake enough of pergola nature for hints as to 
the one to be suitable to the other. They are best 
either of rustic wood or painted metal ; they should 
neither dwarf a garden nor be meanly and inconveni- 
ently low. Colour improvements can be wrought by 
them as soon as they are climbed. And they, like 
the structural colonnades, are called out for by the 
garden of ample sunshine, but should be shunned by 
the garden that is overwhelmed by shade. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Sunshine is no use to the man 
with a cloud before his eyes." 



CHAPTER XVIII 

BULBS AND BULB BORDERS 

" See, yon anemones their leaves unfold, 
With rubies flaming, and with living gold." 

From an ode by the Turkish poet, Mesihi. 

MANY a bulbous, tuberous, or rhizomatous 
plant becomes a denizen of the herbaceous 
border, there to lose its identity as a 
member of one of those botanical classes. Still, there 
is great interest to be gained from collecting together 
numbers of the plants that spring from bulbs or corms, 
either limiting them to those which can be left out of 
doors from year's end to year's end, or to those which 
must be lifted each autumn, stored, and replaced later, 
or (a plan probably more suitable for the villa gardener 
than the second scheme, because entailing less labour) 
the mingling of herbaceous bulbs and those which have 
to be moved. A pretty effect can be obtained then 
by sinking pot evergreen shrubs, of dwarf stature, in 
the spaces that will not be refilled with bulbs till spring 
comes once again. 

It would scarcely be an exaggeration to state that 
two-thirds of the fairest bulbous flowers that can be 
cultivated in the garden are unfamiliar, if not abso- 
lutely unknown, to amateur floriculturists in general. 
So the subject of making bulb borders is quite a 
thrilling one. 

o 



BULBS AND BULB BORDERS 195 

A simple design for creating in front of a wall or 
fence, with perennial bulbous plants only, is shown by 
Fig. 66. Some pattern is a real assistance in pre- 
serving proportion, and adds to the summer display 
a dignity it would not otherwise possess. All the fore- 
ground plants, of moderate height or low stature, can 
be grouped irregularly then and left to spread. Some 
day they will have crammed the soil with roots, and 
begun to overcrowd, but then the task of raising the 
clumps, and disengaging bulblets known as offsets 
for removal elsewhere, will be without any technical 
difficulty. 

Glancing to see if any unfamiliar plants are men- 
tioned the pale yellow water flag at once arrests atten- 
tion. The ordinary species of iris pseudo-acorus, a 
sunflower gold, is coarser and of less pleasing shade, yet 
a worthy flower enough for rough or wet spots. It 
grows wild on the margins of some east Sussex woods, 
where hillside rivulets run down to keep the soil moist. 
The lemon variety does not ask for as much water, and 
loves sunshine, and a fine group of it has a most dis- 
tinctive charm. 

The semi-circular groups in this border can be made 
with quite a few of the plants recommended, or in 
vast congregations ; large bulbs, such as those of tall 
lilies, must be put in nine inches apart at least, but the 
flags may be rather closer. Hyacinth, narcissus, and 
tulip bulbs can be planted at six-inch intervals, and 
so we come down to the tiny crocus bulbs that may 
go in only an inch and a half apart, to make a close 
colour mass speedily. 

The pink gladiolus, or corn flag, had better be 
gladiolus segetum, a hardy species of a peculiar rosy 



196 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

shade, that can safely be left out, as, of course, Darwin 
tulips are treated. The pyramidal star of Bethlehem 
(ornithagalum pyramidale) is a two-foot grower that 
gives spikes of glistening flowers. Tulipa Greigii, 
a small orange-vermilion species, will look exquisite 
by the sky-blue apennine anemone or windflower (ane- 
mone appennina), while the meadow saffrons, which 
may be rosy lilac, crimson, or purple, if not white, 
will arrive in autumn, but may not be too late to 
accompany the montbretias, Fragrant, white, shaded 
with China blue, the spring star flower (milla, or 
triteleia uniflora) will delight every person hitherto 
unacquainted with its delicate charm. The plume and 
tassel hyacinths are quite old-world favourites and 
should not be left out of any bulb border. Golden 
garlic (allium moly) is a brilliant hue, and much taller 
than the better-known white garlic (allium Neapoli- 
tanum), that is so largely cultivated for early spring 
selling. The broad belt of mixed narcissi should include 
single and double daffodils. 

The second bulb-border, Fig. 67, contains but a 
tithe of the fair bulbous subjects that might be used. 
It is not usually recognised that the handsome aga- 
panthus, seen in huge pots in greenhouses, or by entrance 
doors, can be planted out as a summer bedder, to be 
lifted and housed again during winter, nor is it guessed 
that there is a white variety. Hyacinthus candicans 
is so robust that it should be permanently placed 
six inches deep and seven to nine inches apart ; this 
is sometimes called the spire lily, a name that suits 
its magnificent steeple-shaped trusses of white bells. 
Perhaps the name calla may not carry with it the 
mental picture of the grand South African " pig lily." 



BULBS AND BULB BORDERS 197 

This is erroneously known in England as the arum 
lily, while, to add to the perplexity of the inexperienced 
flower-lover, it is often catalogued as richardia. It 
should be planted fifteen inches apart in May, and re- 
potted in September. 

Blue garlic (allium azureum), two feet, quite hardy 
and cheap, the dainty yellow, white, or pink Italian 
hyacinths, the montbretia-like crocosma aurea, the 
striped violet blue and white Lebanon squill, the scarlet 
wind-flower (anemone fulgens), of which there is a 
double, large-blooming, extra brilliant type, are all 
vigorous and unafraid of frost. Butterfly tulips 
(calochortus mariposa) are of wondrous beauty and 
endless bright or pale colour combinations, varying 
in height from six to twenty-four inches ; their blossoms 
open wide, are long-lasting and rare for table decoration, 
and blest with elegant stems. In adequately drained, 
well-prepared borders, against sheltering walls or 
fences, they seldom fail if planted three inches deep and 
four inches apart in October. The bulbs have to be 
lifted when the foliage has died down. 

The Mexican tiger flowers (tigridia pavonia), mostly 
red with yellow, spotted carmine, also ruby-flecked 
white or rose, or pure white, are no more delicate, but 
should not be planted until March, three inches deep 
and six inches distant each from each, and require 
lifting in October, the bulbs usually being tied in small 
bundles and hung up in airy rooms, guarded from 
frost, ready for the next season's planting. 

The Jacobean lily (amaryllis formosissima), if 
planted four or five inches deep, in April each year, 
will give large, quaintly-shaped, dark crimson flowers 
on fourteen-inch stems. The belladonna lily (amaryllis 



198 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

belladonna), the pale blushing pink delight of many 
conservatory owners, can be permanently established 
out of doors, on a south aspect. A strip of velvet- 
soft and close piled turf is the most fitting edge to a 
bulb-border, because a few crocuses, snowdrops, 
and other tiny spring-blooming bulbs, can be inserted 
in the grass here and there. A rockery edging has a 
hard, cruel, jagged look, out of keeping with the soft 
succulence of most bulbous flowers ; also the foliage 
of the majority of those is upright and sparse, not of 
the generous spreading kind that will veil sharp edges 
of big stones. 

Soil for a bulb-border demands some extra prepara- 
tion. The well-manured garden ground ought to have 
a further supply of dry decayed cow-manure, and a 
barrow-load of gritty sand should be dug in to every 
three yards. In planting it is advisable to place as 
much dry sand as the hand will hold under each large 
bulb, less for small ones. There must be efficient 
drainage ; that is to say, it should not be easy for 
puddles to form, or for the soil to become marshy. 
If the soil is naturally light there will not be much 
danger of these ills, but if it is sticky and retentive 
after all that has been done, the border had better 
be made on a slant, sloping from wall to turf edge. 

Immediately imagination runs riot among bulbous 
plants the gardener will find herself excited by her 
glorious opportunities. What of special borders, or 
big beds, for only lilies ? What about some for 
gladioli alone, just carpeted by violas or begonias ? 
But, wherever circumstances encourage the effort, 
there should infallibly be planted a south-wall, front 
garden border of tender subjects. 



BULBS AND BULB BORDERS 199 

Some people only think of the " auratum " and the 
" Madonna " when they speak of lilies for outdoor 
employment. Tell them that spotted " tigers," the 
rose-pink spotted lilium lancifolium, or speciosum, of 
the greenhouse, the Easter lily (lilium Harrisii) too, 
will be happy constantly in the fairly sheltered border, 
and they will find difficulty in believing the true 
statement. And there are lilies of which they have 
no knowledge, the Japanese lily (lilium speciosum 
Melpomene), for example, of darkest crimson, spotted 
with purple, and edged with white, the snowy lilium 
speciosum punctatum, on which spots of pink show 
out, the giant Easter benefactress (lilium longiflorum 
Wilsoni), that bears as many as a dozen white trumpets 
on a stem, and a " tiger " that has a vermilion ground 
to its petals, and is dotted over symmetrically with 
• sepia-maroon spots. 

In how many gardens is the majestic Himalayan 
lily (lilium giganteum) visible, though if the soil is 
deep and rich, preferably semi-shady, it will eventually 
tower twelve feet tall, out of immense heart-shaped 
leaves ? Bulbs ought to be potted up in autumn, just 
for the start, kept in a cold frame or unheated green- 
house, and consigned carefully to the border in May. 
After that they will defy winters. 

Besides making borders or whole beds of bulbs, we 
can insert them, as has been suggested, among the 
herbaceous plants, pop them into lawn beds to come 
quickly to maturity and then be removed to leave 
space for half-hardy annuals or perennials, use certain 
species for improving beds or rockeries in autumn, fill 
the ground under trees with others, and rely on a 
select few to adorn the garden of winter, 



200 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Grateful indeed should the non-wealthy woman 
feel that bulbs are, on the whole, so extraordinarily 
cheap. The Himalayan lily is a rich person's joy, 
but the other delightful lilies seldom cost more than 
sixpence or eightpence a bulb, some less than that, and 
once obtained there they are, not asking to be renewed, 
propagating themselves in a leisurely, some even a 
hasty, way. 

Glades of bulbous flowers between rose trees seldom 
injure rose roots, if a discreet distance is observed and 
the chosen species are those with small or moderate 
sized bulbs, not great hungry tubers or corms. Fields 
of bulbous flowers — mixed species, of about average 
heights — make original large beds. The rock garden 
is improved by the introduction of great quantities 
of rare charmers, as well as of nodding daffydowndillies, 
wide-eyed poets' narcissi, and vivid crocuses and 
anemones. 

Before ending this chapter some more sentences 
must be devoted to introducing little-known bulbous 
flowers to the ever-increasing number of lady gar- 
deners. Bulb-planting is one of the simplest opera- 
tions; given the rich, light soil, the sunny sheltered 
site, the handful, or half-handful, of coarse silver sand 
under each bulb, to prevent its rotting before roots 
start, provided that rats or mice do not infest the 
garden, and that the earth is made just firm about the 
corms, no failures should have to be recorded. Needless 
to say, the bulbs must be good ones. That is one of 
the essentials about which no two opinions can exist. 
It is not true economy to buy " flowering bulbs " at 
prices of the lowest ; " alarming sacrifices " in sales 
have to be avoided ; the honourable firms, however, 




; SWA"? " 






BULBOUS FLOWERS UNDER TREES 



BULBS AND BULB BORDERS 201 

mostly offer young, partly-developed bulbs early at 
low rates, and if these are planted freely they will 
finish their growth under excellent conditions and yield 
finely in two or three years' time. Abnormally cheap 
bulbs, of age to begin blooming, are too often decayed, 
mildewed, or dried up, through having been too long 
out of the ground. Buying at after-season sales must 
mean that the garden is stocked too late for the roots 
to become vigorous ere " greenth " arises, and only 
the weakest of blossom is to be anticipated. 

Sternbergia lutea is the Latin title of the biblically 
named " lily of the field." This is one of the quick- 
rewarding bulbs, for from August-plantings are gained, 
within a few weeks, sheets of golden flowers resembling 
large crocuses. Though the bulbs are not big they must 
be covered by five inches of soil. Sternbergia ma- 
crantha is shorter, pale canary yellow, and slightly 
later. This is a useful bulb for naturalising in woodland 
openings, so too is ornithogalum nutans, a silver-grey, 
pea-green flushed star of Bethlehem. 

Why is the gorgeous lilium umbellatum so un- 
patronised, and undistinguished by any simple name ? 
Lilium umbellatum erectum, cerise-scarlet, shading 
to yellow, two and a half feet, lilium umbellatum 
incomparable, rich crimson, two feet, cost fourpence 
each, and are June bloomers in the open beds of almost 
any locality. Whole shrubberies could be bordered 
by close ranks of them. 

Ixiolirion tartaricum is as easily placed ; this 
carries umbels of deep blue tube-shaped flowers in May 
and June, on eighteen-inch stems. Perfect for sunny 
rock gardens, or nooks near the stones of rock edgings, 
is the Cape beauty known to us as geissorhiza rochensis. 



202 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Seldom exceeding a height of nine inches it has remark- 
able brilliance, so engages notice half across a large 
tennis lawn ; the petals are gentian blue, blotched 
in the centre with carmine. The blue day-flower 
matches it, but is double the height ; an old-fashioned 
treasure this, often reckoned as an herbaceous plant, 
but, being hardy only in the south, or sunny valley 
gardens elsewhere, is best planted as a bulb in April, 
and lifted and stored as the dahlias are. The Latin 
name is commelina tuberosa. 

Lavender and purple-shaded blues are offered by 
the tall, hardy quamashes, Camassias esculenta, 
Cusickii, and Fraseri, or C. Leichtlini varieties. The 
starry flowers are set in spikes, and are marvellously 
beautiful, making it regrettable that so few gardens 
can exhibit them. 

Gardening Proverb. — " It is often good taste to be 
greedy." 



CHAPTER XIX 



WHERE SUNSHINE IS ECLIPSED 

". . . In the stillness is a place to dream — in summer, looking 
upward into the vast expanse of green boughs, is an intricate 
architecture, an inimitable roof, whose lattice windows are set with 
transparent lapis lazuli, for the deep blue of the sky seems to come 
down and rest upon it." — Richard Jefferies. 



"MlE angry regrets that fill the breast of the 
garden-owner who has to contend with 
much shade are an expression of a mistake. 
Instead of pitying self, the spirit should rise pluckily 
to grapple with as fascinating a problem as gardener 
can solve. Granted that the usual flowers cannot 
be well-grown where sunshine is totally absent, and 
but a small percentage of them where sunshine is 
veiled, that obliges the procuring of flowers of which 
nobody is tired. The result should be a shady pleas- 
aunce as beautiful as unique. 

The woman who sets forth to achieve this had better 
focus her plans upon three aims — the creation of trim 
order always, of grots and haunts of cool shade for 
summer evenings, and of shelter and dry seclusion 
for winter days. She must realise, as a preliminary, 
what different sorts of shade there are, then she will 
begin to think how each can be utilised, and its draw- 
backs avoided or minimised. Counsel as to what 
to plant in the garden of shadow would be badly 



204 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

misleading unless supplemented by separate suggestions 
for the quite dissimilar areas that are bound to exist. 

A lovely floral display can be arranged in open beds 
and borders from which walls, hedges, fences, or 
buildings shut away sunshine. Splendid foliage ar- 
rangements, enlivened by a good deal of blossom, 
can be made under tall deciduous trees, those limes and 
elms that are often within or upon the outskirts of 
gardens. Dark, draughty alleys and courtyards may 
be perpetually neat, symmetrical or graceful, admir- 
able hot day resorts, furnished with a variety of 
interests. 

Suppose there is a belt of tall trees and a wide 
expanse of ground, all along one side, or end, of the 
garden. No doubt there exists plenty of rank grass, 
maybe a sour-soiled, dingy-looking rockery, and much 
blackish, trampled soil. The whole should be lifted ; 
any turves likely to be of service elsewhere can be 
clipped short and then laid out in sunshine, that the 
grass-roots, duly supplied with such water as they may 
need, can become strengthened after their shortening 
by the spade. After two or three months' change of 
scene and air, and occasional clippings, the turf will 
be fit for manufacturing grass edgings somewhere, or 
little decorative plots between beds, not lawns of any 
size. 

Grass under trees scarcely ever gives pleasure, 
except when a woodland effect is aimed at and daffo- 
dils, bluebells, and primroses are naturalised in it; 
at present we are bent on securing a pretty garden 
under branches, not upon making a forest carpet. 
No matter how constantly lawns beneath high trees 
are cut, swept, and rolled, or how scientifically they 



WHERE SUNSHINE IS ECLIPSED 205 

have been drained, there will be slimy, slippery places 
for the feet to shun, bare patches where nothing green 
can grow. So let grass be usually eschewed, in favour 
of other ground coverings. 

Prominent in value is " beach " gravel. Though 
in constant use in most sea-coast town and village 
gardens, this is not seen as much as it deserves in 
country ones, nor in London. The cost of obtaining 
it, at a distance from any shingle, may be consider- 
able, yet probably, at its most expensive, it proves 
cheaper in the end than red gravel from the neigh- 
bourhood. Wear and tear of gravel means a renewal 
of the surface at least every second year, if appear- 
ances are to be well maintained, while a half-yearly 
application of weed-killer is essential to comfort. 
Generally the inexperienced gardener spends plenti- 
fully, and most vainly, to " weeding boys," before this 
fact is learnt, that nothing but poisons will prevent 
vegetation in the miniature order from creeping over 
gravel. Though chief weeds can be removed every 
two or three months, by the hand wielding a knife, 
moss and tiny grass-blades will continue to give a 
green surface. Just because weed-killers are poisons 
the amateur horticulturist dreads them ; they are not 
safe to dabble the fingers in — fingers that may be 
scratched too — nor to leave about in tins, nor lying 
in liquid state on walks for long, nor scattered heed- 
lessly, if in powder condition. The proper way to apply 
any of the advertised compounds, subject to instruc- 
tions upon their tins, is to water the gravel very slightly 
first if there has been a drought, as the surface may 
otherwise be too solid to be penetrated by the first 
lot of moisture, then to mix the poison, by stoutly 



206 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

gloved hands, and keep the supply covered while 
the watering-can spreads the diluted stuff. To apply 
weed-killer to deluged gravel is to waste it. Three 
days later, if the weather has been fairly dry, the paths 
should be swept and the debris burned. 

Yes, " beach " is the right material for paths under 
trees, or where shade leads to damp, " pea beach " is 
the correct sort, for the pebbles of which it consists 
are then all tiny ; " bean beach/' the coarser kind, 
is only suitable for rough spots, around pits and 
frames, for playgrounds, area yards that are not flagged, 
or for wet walks through copses, shrubberies, and 
orchards. 

All the soil under the trees ought to be forked to a 
depth of two feet ; some dry old horse manure and 
some barrow-loads of clean road grit can be dug in to 
improve it. The rockery stones should be washed in 
strong carbolic water, and relaid. The ground under 
the tree grove may have a plain design or a most 
elaborate one ; plans offered for roseries can be carried 
out, substituting beach gravel for grass. By this 
means one prettiness — that of a formal, or artistically 
informal, pattern — will be at once provided. After 
a wet week, when the rest of the garden has a dreary, 
sodden aspect, this heretofore dismal stretch will 
be shiningly recleansed, ready to sparkle to every stray 
glint that reaches it through the limes or elms, and to it 
will the steps of the wanderer turn by instinct when the 
house is next left. 

For shrubberies under trees, variegated laurels 
(aucubas) variegated euonymus, gold or silver, and 
golden privet are the best, because the brightest 
hardy subjects, to rely on, but the snowberry tree 



WHERE SUNSHINE IS ECLIPSED 207 

(symphoricarpus radicans) is cheerful from earliest spring 
when its pea-green leaf buds appear, to the last of its 
winter load of round white fruits, and, as a complete 
thicket, surrounded by barberries for contrast of dark 
with light, it will flourish in the worst of the tree- 
canopied yards. Spray-bushes (cotoneasters), trained 
out to wooden stakes and outstretched wire espaliers, 
will make a charming hedge-line where a division is 
requisite. Lilacs should not be planted, as they 
commonly are, in such a position, for shade causes them 
to go all to leaf, and it is most difficult to coax them 
to yield blossom in any quantity. Rugosa, or Japan- 
ese roses, prove willing to grow and flower almost 
anywhere. Here is a list of them : 

Rugosa. Deep magenta rose. 
Rugosa Alba. Single white. 
Rugosa Repens Alba. A weeping white. 
Delicata. Pale pink, semi-double ; fragrant. 
Conrad F. Meyer. Silvery rose ; very fragrant. 
Fimbriata. White, with pink picotee edge ; semi-double 
Madame Georges Bruant. Double white. 
Madame Charles Worth. Rosy carmine ; semi-double. 
Calocarpa. Single pink ; very perfumed. 
Belle Poitevine. Double rose ; fragrant. 
Atropurpurea. Carmine-maroon ; double. 
Blanc Double de Coubert. Double white ; fragrant. 
Nova Zembla. Described as a white Conrad F, 
Meyer. 

The beds, whether large or little, must be filled with 
a loving regard for the success with which pretty leaves 
can emulate the gaiety of flowers. The foliage of 
pinks, after a shower, is as real a pale blue as are the 



208 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

blossoms of the flax ; the fern-like fronds of a knap- 
weed, centaurea plumosa, silver-grey, should be 
equally esteemed. Either of these herbaceous plants 
will describe portions of the designs in beds or borders, 
and if associated with coloured foxgloves to give height, 
and yellow mimulus, can be relied on for the whole 
of the floral season. 

Monk's-hoods, the autumn moon-daisy (pyrethrum 
uglinosum), the asphodel (asphodelus ramosus), the 
most vigorous of the hundreds of Michaelmas daisies, 
goat's-beard (astilbe rivularis), the plume poppy 
(bocconia cordata), or its yellow-cream relative boc- 
conia microcarpa, nine feet, the six-foot yellow 
cephalaria tartarica, rosy crimson or white willow- 
herbs (epilobium augustifolium), day lilies, of lemon, 
amber, or bronzy orange, the elecampane (inula 
helenium), the yellow water flag (iris pseudacorus), 
magenta-rose loosestrife (lythrum salicaria), wild berga- 
mot (monarda fistulosa superba), purple- violet, four 
feet, Jerusalem sage (phlomis viscosa), buff, in quaint 
branches, five feet, all the old tall phloxes, as distinct 
from the modern dwarfs, knotweeds (polygonums 
molle, polystachyum, and the twelve-foot sachalinense), 
ornamental rhubarbs (rheums), groundsel (senecio 
Clivorum), yellow, in long spikes, with fine foliage, 
five feet, the rosin plant (silphium erythrocaulon), 
yellow, four feet, golden rods, mulleins, and the globe 
flower (trollius giganteus), will succeed in the centres 
of beds under deciduous trees. Is there any excuse 
therefore for the pessimists who look disconsolately 
at shaded plots and murmur, " Of course nothing can 
grow " ? 

By ringing the change on these lofty perennials the 



WHERE SUNSHINE IS ECLIPSED 209 

woman gardener will be able to invent excellent 
harmonies, with the assistance of lesser flowers that 
will similarly succeed. Here is a list of some : 

Yellow Globe Flower. Trollius hybridus. 2 feet. 

Periwinkles. Plain green and variegated, also double 
blooming, and the white flowering. 

Spiderworts. Tradescantia virginica, blue, white, or 
violet. if feet. 

Feathered Meadow Rue. Thalictrum aquilegifolium ; 
fern-like foliage, cream florescence. 2J feet. 

Rabbit's Ear. Stachys lanata. White woolly leaves, 
hugging the soil even under evergreens ; red- 
purple bloom. 1 foot. 

Solomon's Seal. Polygonatums. A representative 
collection should be ordered. 

London Pride. Flourishes anywhere. 

Water Forget-me-not. Myosotis palustris. 

St. John's Worts. Hypericums ; of several species. 

Christmas Roses. Lenten roses also. Must have shade. 

Leopard's Banes. Doronicums austriacum ; plantagi- 
neum excelsum and magnificum. Bright 
yellow. 

Bleeding Heart Flower. Dicentra spectabilis ; also 
the smaller native, deeper rose, dicentra 
eximea. 

Cyclamen. Cyclamens Coum, deep red ; hederae- 
folium album, white, variegated green and 
cream ; and neapolitanum, bright rose, hand- 
somely marbled leaves. 

Double Daisies. Bellis perennis, red, rose, or white. 

Sweet Woodruff. Asperula odorata ; white, leaves 
hay-scented. 1 foot. 



210 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Columbines. All the old-fashioned double and single 
columbines. 

There remain various bulbous plants to be mentioned, 
real shade-lovers ; all the snowflakes (leucojums), 
single and double daffodils, the mountain star of 
Bethlehem (ornithagalum montanum), the blood-root 
(sanguinaria canadensis), of white spring bloom and 
big leaves, the gorgeous scarlet caffre flag (schizostylis 
coccinea), that sends up spikes late in the year, blue- 
bells of many colours (scilla nutans), Darwin tulips, 
long-stemmed and of countless colour blends, the starry 
yellow winter aconites, many dainty nodding fritil- 
larias, humble dog's-tooth violets, trying to dip their 
meek little faces between their variegated leaves that 
are such a fair carpet, white or yellow garlic, all the 
lovely meadow-saffrons (colchicums), that are mis- 
takenly known as autumn crocuses, and the luxuriant- 
leaved, drooping red-purple or white wood-lilies, or 
Trinity flowers (trilliums). 

Beautiful petals often suffer from drip, of course, 
but that is so too in natural woodlands. 

One or two beds or borders might be given up en- 
tirely to meadow sweets (spiraeas), which are white, 
cream, pale pink, or deep rosy crimson. Ground spaces 
could be massed with coloured or cream primroses, and 
white, rose, or pale lilac-blue wood anemones, or wind- 
flowers, gems that are no longer costly even in the rare 
colours. 

Handsome ornaments under the trees, that will 
afford variety of effects, are ivies trained up pillars, 
stone urns filled with miniature golden shrubs and 
variegated periwinkle, mounds, of hillock shape, 



WHERE SUNSHINE IS ECLIPSED 211 

partly turfed, partly covered by bluebells and prim- 
roses, rockeries for all the hardy native ferns and just 
daffodils for spring, raised beds, the sides held up by 
painted wire netting, to contain golden and bronze 
calceolarias, or foliage fuchsias. 

All the plants and shrubs advised for the tree- 
shaded land will succeed in those open stretches over 
which walls cast shadows. If any of these have 
dryish, poor soil, geraniums will make a gorgeous 
summer show in them, so too will nasturtiums of all 
kinds. 

Walls, fences, or trellises here can have traveller's 
joy, yellow jasmine, and Japanese roses nailed against 
them ; also the exquisite flame flower (tropaeolum 
speciosum) will be suited by some aspects, or will 
delight in mounting a solid pillar made of interlaced 
faggots. Particulars of the climbers for drear, sunless 
spots will be found in a former chapter. 

Manifold are the uses of bedded-out plants, in dark, 
confined, or windswept shady parts of the garden. 
In addition to calceolarias and fuchsias are there not 
pansies, and the deliciously scented tobacco plants, 
white or coloured, medium tall, or towering ? White 
Paris daisies, or marguerites, generally blossom well, 
as does the ox-eye daisy, the perennial chrysanthemum 
maximum of which florists have given us such mag- 
nificent named sorts. Beets, cineraria maritima, and 
most other foliage bedding stuff will help in the decora- 
tion of shadowed beds and borders that are not dripped 
upon. 

Annuals that will succeed from sowings on the spot 
are not numerous, but the mallow-worts (lavatera 
trimestris, rosea and alba), common white candytuft, 



212 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

cornflowers, and the white or rosy centranthus macro- 
siphon, are fairly sure to spring into existence. 

The list of flowers for our shadowed land might be 
yet further drawn out, but enough has surely been said 
to set the gardener to work planning and preparing 
to turn formerly desolate tracts into verdant groves 
and flower-laden glades. If there are expanses thought 
to be of soured soil, and so overhung by evergreen 
trees that scarcely any flowers can be ventured upon, 
let them be clothed decently in pegged down ivy, or 
have massed garments of hart's-tongue ferns, creeping 
Jenny, St. John's wort, the large green periwinkle, 
Solomon's seal, and London pride. Upright loose 
strifes (lysimachias) are beautiful golden shrubs, and 
bracken fern will form grand ranks ; old-fashioned 
sweet Williams can be naturalised under all but fir 
foliage, and day lilies peep out of copses of honesty 
when the purple bloom has ended in silver seed sprays. 

Just a little ingenuity, and a copious stock of 
patience, will bring about triumphs of form and colour 
too, if combinations are chosen, and strong plants set 
out, by the tender mind and hands of the true garden 
lover. 

Gardening Proverb. — " It's no use crying over a 
clouded sun." 



CHAPTER XX 

EVIL AND EXCELLENT EDGINGS 

" And I must work thro' months of toil 
And years of cultivation, 
Upon my proper patch of soil, 
To grow my own plantation. 
I'll take the showers as they fall, 
I will not vex my bosom ; 
Enough if at the end of all 
A little garden blossom." 

Tennyson. 

DOES some captious personage say : " What an 
uninteresting subject for a chapter " ? If 
so a converted state of mind may be the 
result of an honest reading of the following pages, if 
the perusal is aided by that genuine desire to appre- 
ciate, upon which writers for the would-be worker, and 
writers for the would-be entertained, must equally 
depend. Without a doubt, unless edgings are beauti- 
ful they are nothing but necessary nuisances : yet when 
they are fair — kept so, not allowed to degenerate — 
they contribute bountifully to the charm and reputa- 
tion of the garden. There should, of course, be caution 
in adopting the novel, but unless we are keenly eager 
to receive we must miss myriads of offered gains. 
Novel edgings include those of uncommon material, 
as well as those of unfamiliar plants, but a great deal 
can be achieved with old, or commonest, wood or 
metal, or popular shrubs and plants, used in original 



214 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

manners. The necessary has a claim, in any place, 
that cannot be sanely combated; it is the artist's 
business to meet that claim so as to add to the world's 
beauty. 

On coming into possession, or tenancy, of a garden 
it would not be amiss if edgings were thought of im- 
mediately after the laying out, or the alterations, 
were decided upon. A freshly made garden is better pre- 
pared if its bed and border boundaries are thoroughly 
arranged, than if scores of delightful shrubs and plants 
are thrust into the plots. Outlines quickly become 
lost, and paths dirtied, by the washing down of soil. 

Generally expense is scamped. Sometimes cost is 
not counted, but consideration is grudged. Then 
there are perpetual mistakes made. 

Is the garden that of a typically no-style villa 
residence ? The modern-Georgian architecture runs 
to stucco walls, abrupt angles and recesses called 
" quaint," violent window protuberances, roofs of 
vermilion tiles, and ornamentations of stained wooden 
beams, either across squarish surfaces, or framing 
peaks. Ten to twenty years ago red brick, with a 
white cemented gable, higher pitched roof, and a great 
amount of white paint, characterised almost all small 
houses. The good old years are gone by that saw 
plain-faced white dwellings, without any pretence at 
the ornate, dear solid, grey-roofed homes, being put 
up in double the time that builders now give to semi- 
detached residences of similar rental or price. 

Gardeners who can pursue their beloved work beside 
simple and unostentatious houses should take extra 
pains to keep the border and bed-edgings, as, indeed 
other garden items, in quietly good taste. Those 



EVIL AND EXCELLENT EDGINGS 215 

who know that the " composite/ ' or falsely imitative, 
style of a house is a blot on the landscape ought to 
endeavour to cover it up with natural, living grace and 
beauty, by planting a wealth of climbers against the 
walls ; and the next improvement should be the plant- 
ing of living edgings in the garden. 

Hideous shiny, embossed, harsh-outlined, red, yellow, 
brown, or slate-grey edging tiles may be there already. 
Never mind ; vegetation and florescence can hide them, 
just as ivies, roses, vines, clematises, and innumerable 
aspiring plants will cloak the walls. If the soil is 
not held up as yet, the very best plan will be to give 
it a temporary supporting line of wood, then set rows 
of all the exquisite dwarf hardy evergreen perennials 
closely behind this. Wood rots in a year or two, 
sooner in some damp localities, and can be pulled out 
and burnt to ashes, for the living edging will then be 
sufficiently strong to separate earth from gravel, 
asphalte, or flag-stones. All the suitable dwarf 
plants are not, strictly speaking, evergreen, but have, 
perhaps, such prominent stems, or mass-forming 
roots, that they adequately check the downwash of 
soil and do not become invisible. The wood used 
should be in strips, four inches wide, to be buried an 
inch in the ground, six inches, to be buried two inches, 
against beds of higher surface, and so on, according to 
the individual requirements of each case. Plain deal will 
serve its time, but has a most unpleasantly makeshift 
appearance until it becomes weather-stained ; a coat 
of green, grey, or brown paint, put on before the edging 
is constructed, will prevent an extensive eyesore. 
Old grey wood, the laths of broken-up palings, are 
best of all to obtain ; indeed so harmonious is this 



216 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

with all Nature's own effects that it is almost a pity 
to employ the rather scarce material temporarily, 
and wisdom suggests its being reserved for some long 
borders where it can remain until it crumbles — kitchen 
garden edges, gay with old-fashioned flowers, or 
pretty reserve plots, perchance. 

One word as to paint : the tints chosen should be 
subdued ones. Green can be the tone of turf in shadow 
— there is a wondrous lot of ochre in that — or the grey- 
green of sweet pea foliage, or light emerald, or perhaps 
an olive, autumn-leaf colour ; but, oh, never the 
" peacock " that screams at the observer ! Grey, to 
be a fit associate for Time's pastel paintings, must 
have little blue in it, but plenty of pink, resemble the 
soft shade of a rabbit's fur, or the trunks of veteran 
elms. Brown should be mellow russet, not burnt 
sienna, or perhaps, if wanted very dark, a sepia to 
which olive has been added. 

Wood is not the only material of which a temporary 
edging can be made ; wire-netting is cheap and easily 
obtainable, and if strips are sunk two inches or so in 
the soil, joined together, length to length, by a wire 
tie or two, and bits of pea-stick wood, the right height, 
are thrust through the wire, and so into the soil at 
intervals of a yard, the labour is slight, and the 
manufacture good. The wire need not be painted, 
unless it is to stay permanently. 

Short pieces of faggot-wood, the breadth of a woman's 
thumb, cut blunt at one end, sharp at the other, will 
make an edging alone by themselves, if inserted at 
inch intervals. The drawback will be twofold ; quite 
a light kick in passing will knock a stick flat, and frost 
will render them all very brittle, liable to destruction 



EVIL AND EXCELLENT EDGINGS 217 

by trowel, fork, hoe, rake, or spade. But the small 
model of a rustic fence is undeniably attractive. Old 
grey stones, of ornamental size, make delightful 
edgings, but are becoming increasingly difficult to get. 
They can be laid singly, their edges just touching, and 
a little clay or stiff soil wedged in between them will 
keep the earth in place. No attempt should be made 
to secure a level top or sides to the row. Rockery edg- 
ings are built of similar stones, some set partly behind 
the others, some jutting forward, some towering higher, 
and, if possible, they must be firmly placed without 
cementing having to be done, because if they can be 
lifted, looked under, cleared of insects now and then, 
the border plants will be better safeguarded. Aggres- 
sively new flint stones, and coloured " burrs " bought 
from gas-works, are as much to be shunned as the 
fragments of coloured pottery that can be found in 
some humble gardens. The upturned bottle-bottoms, 
the linked flower-pots, the lids of bright tins, that have 
occasionally been seen, are no more inartistic than 
' burrs " — indeed the first-mentioned edging material 
is not unpleasing. As for the primitive scallop-shell 
edgings that are still popular in Cornish villages, and 
elsewhere, they have a beauty all their own. A novel 
material is the cocoanut shell, halved across, not 
split down, and placed point uppermost ; this suits 
admirably with rustic arches and poles, the brown wood 
beams on house walls, or the tree-trunks of a woodland. 
Salt jar lids, half sunk, are every bit as good as tiles. 

Miniature hedges can be made of the top twigs of 
pea-faggots, or the coarser branches will make a tiny 
espalier fencing, nailed together by tin-tacks : a 
horizontal bar or two should lie along the lowest 



218 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

portion to make that efficient as soil restrainer. Artis- 
tic edgings can be manufactured of slender birch poles 
slit down the middle so that two lengths of equal 
width are obtained ; each length will have a rounded 
side, with the bark on, which is to front the path, and 
a flat side that joins the soil. As it would be waste 
to hide much of the bark by partly burying the half- 
log the most clever fixing is managed by bringing up the 
level of the bed, or border, flush with the top of wood, 
cementing soil and wood together by stiff clay, or, 
lacking that, Portland cement mixed with water and 
a little glue. The last constituent is to prevent the 
cement from being absorbed by the still moist centre 
of the split birch, the outer part of which merely lies 
on the path. To preserve the bark two or three coats 
of thick varnish should be given to it after it is placed. 
A more aesthetic edging for the neighbourhood of 
blossoms cannot be imagined. It may be deep, made 
from split trunks, or narrow, as topmost branches. 
Pine wood can be chosen in preference, is probably 
more effective, being dark, and excellently in keeping 
with wild gardens, but there are numbers of edging and 
carpet annuals and perennials which shrink from con- 
tact with its rough, resinous surface. 

Then we come — by a sharp drop, surely ? — to edgings 
of brick, yet we must recollect a previously registered 
truth, that to hate builders' materials near earthly 
dwellings is false delicacy, mock refinement. There 
are plenty of places in which red or cream bricks look 
cheerful and suited to the environing features ; paths 
of them are homely and clean, not without real beauty, 
and if these walks are laid two or three inches higher 
than the soil, no other material edging will be required, 



EVIL AND EXCELLENT EDGINGS 219 

and the one of dwarf plants will be able to rejoice in a 
fine amount of moisture, the consequence of drainage. 
When another kind of path is brick edged it is a mistake 
to cement the bricks lightly together unless the soil 
is by nature over-dry ; otherwise stagnant water is 
apt to lodge behind, sour the earth, rot bulbs and roots, 
and so cause trouble. Fissures between the bricks 
allow surplus rainfalls to trickle through to the path, 
especially if the bed, or border, slopes slightly, as it 
ought. Kitchen garden flower borders may well be 
of a single row of bricks that have been lime-washed ; 
this is such a deterrent to insect pests ; the white line 
will gleam even on quite dark nights in this unillumin- 
ated place, so guide footsteps from straying off the 
path, while the brilliancy under summer's sun and blue 
sky will help the blossoms, leaves, fruits, butterflies, 
birds, and bees — aye, even the vegetables, with some 
exceptions — to make a splendid picture. 

A red-brick edging against a gravel walk, borders 
filled with only white, blue, and pale yellow flowers, 
will please the most fastidious critic, but vulgarity of 
colour scheme results from permitting any deep rose 
or carmine blossoms to show themselves. In one old 
garden the red brick line was found against pink and 
crimson roses, so the evil was cured by paint of a green- 
pea shade. Broken slates should never be used for 
edgings ; their crude grey is out of sympathy with 
most greens, and a discord with several other hues, 
besides which their sharpness makes them dangerous 
to children who may play in the garden. 

The woman who has spared time, zeal, and some 
money to the proper enclosing of her plots from her 
paths is entitled to high praise, since the temptation 



220 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

to shirk essentials and pursue luxuries is as real in the 
gardening art as in any bid for success. She will 
reap her reward daily, for years afterwards, since 
hailstones that will devastate other gardens by washing 
plants out of their places, and flinging mud broadcast, 
will not injure her property ; when winter has tried to 
banish comfort her pleasure grounds will still be decor- 
ously trim and clean, dry, too, sooner than could be 
hoped, if those paths have been built several inches 
higher at the middle than by the edgings. 

Another warning must be given here : the cheapness 
of trellis woodwork strips should not persuade any 
person to invest in them for bordering purposes ; they are 
abominably formal, without the dignity that formality 
often confers, they are sharp-edged, have to be con- 
tinually repaired or repainted, and look meaner still 
when partly broken, as they are certain speedily to 
become. There are a variety of pretty galvanised 
wire edgings sold by the length, some with hoops at 
the top ; these, when painted light green, suit modern 
gardens well, and are durable, easy, too, to set up or 
remove. 

Turf edgings have been recommended for bulb 
borders, with small bulbous plants naturalised in the 
grass, that does not have to be cut till the very early 
spring florescence is finished : the method is appropriate 
for shrubberies, roseries, and herbaceous borders, any- 
where so far as appearance is concerned. But turf 
invariably harbours noxious insects, so the special 
carnation and pansy beds, the home of the violets and 
lilies-of-the-valley, the soil stretches where seed sowing- 
is intended, should not be surrounded by it. 

After so close a study of " dead " edgings, and the 



EVIL AND EXCELLENT EDGINGS 221 

verdant turf one, we may come to make acquaintance 
with all the dainty plants that are willing to form com- 
pact lines, either to replace those of material in time, 
or to adorn them. The ugliest tiles that must not 
be moved can be smothered in greenery. Yet, no — 
an idle boast has been written ! To glance at all 
serviceable plants is manifestly out of the question ; 
only a selection can be suggested, in the briefest manner. 

EDGING PLANTS 

Tufted Burr. Acaena microphylla. Evergreen foliage, 
minute florescence. Dry soil. 6 inches. 

Silver Yarrow. Achillea umbellata argentea. Silver 
leaves, white bloom. 6 inches. 

Bugle. Ajuga osmafera. Royal blue ; evergreen. 7 
inches. A taller species is ajuga reptans, of 
which there is a valuable variegated kind. 

Gold Dust. Alyssum saxatile compactum. 9 inches. 

Cat's Ear. Antennaria tomentosa. White leaves. 3 
inches. 

White Rock Cress. Arabis alpina. The double form 
is not too tall for wide borders ; the variegated 
lesser kind is admirable anywhere. 

Thrift. Rose or white. Armeria laucheana, deep car- 
mine ; has blossom only 9 inches high. 

Purple Rock Cress. All aubrietias are beautiful. 
There are now a gold and a silver variegated 
sort. 

Double Daisies. Bellis perennis. Modern giant 
bloomers are best for beds, the old-fashioned 
kind for edgings, a remark to be applied also 
to pinks. 



222 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Bell-flowers. Campanulas carpatica, fragilis, grandi- 
flora Mariesi, nitida alba, portenschlagiana, 
pusilla, Stansfieldi, all blue, violet, or white. 

Snow-in-Summer. Cerastiums Biebersteinii and to- 
mentosum. 6 inches. 

Leadwort. Plumbago Larpentae. Should be in every 
garden. Bright blue, autumn bloomer. 6 
inches. 

Dianthus. Dianthus alpinus. Crimson, 2 inches. 

Cheddar Pinks. Dianthus caesius, pink. Early sum- 
mer. 9 inches. 

Crane's Bill. Geranium Endressii, i foot. Geranium 
sanguineum lancastriense, flesh and carmine. 
6 inches. Constant bloomers. 

Manna Grass. Glyceria spectabilis. Variegated grass. 
6 inches. 

Sun Roses. Helianthemums. Brilliant colours. Dry 
soil. 6 inches. 

Perennial Candytuft. Iberises. Many kinds with 
white bloom, one with mauve. Evergreen. 
9 inches to i foot. 

Dead Nettle. La mi urn maculatum. Purple flores- 
cence, but valued for dark leaves with white 
markings. Good for poorest soil. 6 inches. 

Gromwells. Lithospermum prostratum. Royal blue. 
Dry, or well drained soil. Evergreen. 6 
inches 

Forget-me-nots. The best is myosotis alpestris. 

Blue-eyed Mar}'. Omphalodes verna. Beautiful blue, 
very hardy ; will thrive in shade. There is a 
white variety. 9 indies 

Alpine Poppies. Pink or white ; pretty foliage tufts 
of grey 7 inches. 



EVIL AND EXCELLENT EDGINGS 223 

Moss Pinks. Phlox subulata. Mossy foliage ; pink, 
crimson, lilac, white, or lavender blue. Ever- 
green. 4 inches. 

Cherry Kno tweed. Polygonium affine. Cerise. For 
use against other edgings. Will thrive in 
damp or shade. 9 inches. 

Saxifrages. The best mossy white is saxifraga hyp- 
noides, known as Eve's cushion ; the best 
rose is saxifraga moschata Rhcei, but a list 
of species should be obtained. Blossom 
1 foot tall, from low, dense, evergreen foliage. 

London Pride. Saxifraga umbrosa. Admirable any- 
where. 

Stonecrop. These useful dry border plants are also 
too numerous to describe in detail. 

Thyme. Silver and gold-leaved thymes are charming 
plants. Not hardy everywhere. 6 inches. 

Veronica prostrata. Deep blue. 1 foot. 

Clover, Trifolium repens pentaphyllum. Bronze foli- 
age, white blooming. 6 inches. 

Mountain Speedwell. Veronica gentianoides. Pale 
blue, with blossom in spikes. Evergreen. 

Silver Speedwell. Veronica incana. Nearly white 
foliage, deep blue flowers. 9 inches. 

Winter Green. Pyrola. Evergreen, white blooming, 
shade lover. 6 inches. 

Lungwort. Pulmonarias. Bright blue flowers, shaded 
with rose ; beautiful spotted foliage. About 
1 foot tall. Pulmonaria rubra has reddish 
blooms. Spring. 

Cinquefoils. Potentilla alba, white, 6 inches ; Poten- 
tilla nitida, silver and pink, 4 inches ; Poten- 
tilla villosa, yellow flowers, constant bloomers. 



224 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Heath-leaved St. John's Wort. Hypericum empetri- 
folium. Gold. Evergreen. 9 inches. 

Barrenwort. Epimedium alpinum. Crimson and 
yellow blossom, tinted spring and autumn 
foliage 6 inches. Also Epimedium rubrum. 

Primroses. Yellow or variously coloured. Foliage 
permanent out of hot sun. 

Cowslips. Hybrid or coloured cowslips are very lovely 
as edgings in semi-shade. 

Auriculas. The Alpine auricula will make a good silver 
foliage line on hot, dry soil. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Keep within bounds, and 
escape many a painful beating. 



CHAPTER XXI 

ROCKERIES AND THEIR DENIZENS 

" I look across the bright grass — il verde smalto — to a great red 
rose bush in lavish disarray against the dark cypress. Near by, amid 
a tangle of many-hued cornflowers, I see the promise of coming 
lilies, the sudden crimson of a solitary paeony ; and in lowlier state 
against the poor parched earth glow the golden cups of the esch- 
scholtzias." — Michael Fairless. 

COUNSELS as to the right stones to employ 
for rock edgings can be repeated, yet more 
insistently, about stones for larger rockeries. 
Let the very name of burr be anathema, round yellowish 
gravel-pit stones, or big pebbles carved in round lumps 
by the waves of the sea be likewise banned, with the 
species of flint that is stacked in heaps by roads about 
to be mended. Only grey rocks are tolerable, and they, 
despite their hard nature, are positively lovable. In 
some counties builders dig up stores of them when 
excavating for house-foundations, in others they lie 
in river beds and ditches ; on Sussex downs they can 
be picked up from off the short herbage, under the black- 
berry copses, or by the monster bushes of gorse. To 
collect personally enough to make a rockery mound 
even entails persistence and many aches, for they are 
heavy treasure-trove, and distances have a way of 
seeming great when two or three knobbly lumps are 
tucked under the arm in brown paper, and a fourth, 
perhaps, reposes^in the retirement of a bag. 

Q 



226 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

The woman who gives an order for rockery stones 
ought to have seen samples ; it is no fun when a cart- 
load of unsatisfactory quality is dumped down before 
the front gate. Really it is the difficulty of gaining 
suitable old material that makes rockery-building 
hazardous. There are country and seaside places where 
the right material is plentiful and can be bought, if not 
for a song, certainly for a few shillings ; when that is so 
the rock garden may well be extensive. The founda- 
tion for all rockeries must be good drainage ; not the 
laying of drain-pipes, but the formation of a bank of 
coarse stones and tussocky, fibrous material, through 
which harmful wet can trickle away. The mound, or 
bank shape, of a rock-garden is for the hastening of 
this drainage, while, at the same time, the deep soil, 
in part made into " pockets," is for the provision of 
sufficient root-moisture for plants that do not stay 
healthy on sun-baked levels. But that conservation 
of moisture results from the shading of soil by slanted 
blocks, or roofing slabs, does not proceed from un- 
drained depths below. 

Flat rock-gardens should never be constructed except 
in a porous soil : in gravelly land there is a natural 
drainage system, which absolves the gardener from the 
labour of preparing foundations, all the needful base 
being a venerable manure and loam mixture a foot 
to two feet under the surface, into which roots can 
strike. On these sun-scorched gritty stretches, rock 
groups, some giant, some dwarf, will cast valuable 
shadows and be protective agents, and scattered slabs, 
of unequal sizes and a multitude of shapes, will break 
the force of the heat to a remarkable degree. Rocked- 
over borders or beds, with plants of various altitudes, 



ROCKERIES AND THEIR DENIZENS 227 

irregularly arranged between carpets of vivid colours, 
can be backed, or centrally dominated, by curious 
cacti and other succulents, some that can live out, 
others that must retire each autumn ; be homes too, 
at seasons, for gorgeous tropical flowers, tuberoses, 
thorn apples (daturas), pomegranates, camellias, olean- 
ders, eucalyptuses for silver foliage sheen, caladiums, 
with leaves bright as blossoms, Indian shot, palms, and 
myrtles. The rarity of such displays is all in their 
favour ; public opinion is too much inclined to expect 
alpine flowers alone as denizens in rock-gardens. As 
long as the classes are kept distinct, glacier and snow- 
field gems not grouped with the poppies of the Sierras, 
nor gentian and edelweiss with Japanese azaleas and 
Peruvian tiger-flowers, for example, there is no incon- 
gruity between tender plant-mixture demanding sun, 
and the aspect of rockery boulders. It is the gar- 
dener's task to care for the wants of individuals of the 
vegetable kingdom, and if she guesses, or proves, that 
tropic ferns and flowers live more happily for being 
shielded by rockery masses during our brief summers, 
by all means let her arrange them so. 

We have been considering, remember, merely the 
rock-strewn level borders upon sandy or gravelly 
soils. Cactaceous and succulent plants, such as 
echeverias and crassulas, will not flourish, even for 
hot months, on the ordinary stiff-soil rockery. This 
must be kept for much hardier subjects. Woman's 
acknowledged gift of intuition is sure to help greatly 
in all gardening pursuits, yet she may wisely bring 
logical conclusions to bear upon her rockery construc- 
tion. One such fact is the importance of slanting the 
stones so that they conduct rain into the pockets of 



228 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

soil where the roots live, not away, so that the thirsty 
plants suffer one of the torments of Tantalus. Another 
truth to note is that close congregations of stones make 
unhealthy conditions, yet nine rockeries out of ten 
are wedged tight, below and above the surface, so that 
to plunge a handfork into them anywhere is to find 
the prongs stopped in their descent. Thirdly, a pre- 
cipitous slope must have plateaux in which to form 
pockets, or else rain will rush down, as from a high- 
pitched roof, without benefiting a single plant. The 
fewer the stones in a group the better the look and the 
character ; large blocks can rest on one another by 
their edges, without being banked up underneath by 
pebbles. 

Again, it is not advisable to show every inch of a 
" nice block of stone." Nature does not construct 
her rockeried dells and mounts so ; boulders should 
peep out from soil or turf, peaks project in unstudied 
tiers, slabs create terraces below which may nestle 
bulbs and tubers that would otherwise rot during 
winter. 

An authority on rockery building recommends that 
the actual soil should contain half its bulk of rough 
" riddlings " from a stone quarry, crushed granite or 
marble, or broken brick rubble. River sand is sug- 
gested as fit to take the place of these, but it does not 
prove so, for it not only damps so much sooner, but 
retains the wet, and is altogether a dank, heavy con- 
stituent in comparison with the others. Brick rubble 
any builder can supply, and its great amount of lime 
makes it valuable for more than soil lightening. No 
manure must be used that is not thoroughly decayed 
and dry 4 ; leaf mould is beneficial as a portion of 



ROCKERIES AND THEIR DENIZENS 229 

compost for a rock-garden, needed by all but those 
robust herbaceous plants, or hardy annuals,that can live 
contentedly in ordinary borders. Soil brought from 
a heather common is capital to mix in largely, while 
the common garden loam can be improved by a fourth 
portion of peat moss litter, which is cheap to purchase. 

It will always be found that the soil of a rock garden 
sinks — most, of course, when there are slopes — but 
top-dressings are used to remedy this. Heath mould, 
leaf mould with venerable cow-manure, chopped small, 
or equal parts of peat moss litter and fresh turf loam, 
will be excellent, while one portion of hop manure to 
three of loam is a fine food. The gardener will learn 
to enjoy the occupation of applying these mulches ; 
as she moves among the flowers, digging trowelsful 
of the compost from the basket on her arm, pouring 
the nourishment carefully in between the tufts of 
foliage, settling it by finger touches, brushing any 
debris from silken-haired or fleshy leaves, she may quite 
legitimately believe that her pets smile back their 
gratitude. 

Town gardens, and any of which the soil is heavy, 
the drainage insufficient, the atmosphere damp, can 
be cultivated to far better advantage when well rock- 
eried. Banks and mounds, down which moisture 
mostly passes, naturally dry soon after wet spells or 
thunderstorm torrents, and it is also an immense help 
to have created a variety of aspects. A bank that runs 
from east to west will have a south side on which 
thousands of flowers can shine which could not be 
cultivated on the level of such land as we are consider- 
ing. The north side will do for a fernery and yellow 
primroses. Summits of banks, if not decked with 



230 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

variegated evergreen shrubs, may be sites for vivid- 
hued snapdragons, that start early and continue very 
late. The snapdragons can be preceded by daffodils 
and crocuses. 

Rockeries in hot, dry gardens that need them, 
because the stones will shade roots and direct rain- 
water where it can refresh them, may have plenty of 
hyacinths and tulips dotted over them for spring, hosts 
of lovely half-hardy perennials dwelling permanently, 
be sown annually with half-hardy annuals, or be used 
for the different types of begonias and other delicate 
bedding subjects. Whether they are large slopes, or 
little mounds upon the lawn, Drummond's phlox will 
be one of the fairest imaginable carpets ; there are so 
many tints offered by this half-hardy annual that no 
monotony need be dreaded. A lovely perennial ground- 
covering would be the hardy miniature viola cornuta, 
a cross between a pansy and a violet, that shows many 
of the pansy's colour blends. This can be quickly raised 
from seed, in boxes under glass in March, in outdoor 
seed-beds in April, May, or June. An English name 
for it is horned pansy. While the mixed varieties 
are perfectly harmonious in tints, seed can be bought 
separately of white or yellow ; Papilio, lavender-triolet - 
and-white ; Purple Queen, mauve ; and Rose Queen, a 
soft peach-lilac. 

Striking, yet artistic, is a grey rockery mound on 
which none but scarlet flowers blossom ; the early 
anemone fulgens and Van Tholl tulips, later tulips 
of appropriate species, poppy anemones, nasturtiums, 
catchflys (lychnis chalcedonica, lychnis Haageana), 
avens (geum), geraniums, Tom Thumb dahlias, only 
a foot tall, verbenas, dwarf zinnias, Turban and 



ROCKERIES AND THEIR DENIZENS 231 

Persian ranunculuses, Flora's paint-brush (cacalia 
coccinea), carnations, etc., etc. Against the green 
of the lawn or the ochre of gravel this gay hillock will 
please ; or a shelving border rockery, so planted, tells 
out magnificently by a whitewashed or cream stucco 
house wall. 

Blue, yellow, pink, or crimson, mauve, violet, or 
orange rockeries are recommendable for many sites ; 
an all-white one, on a large scale, makes a creditable 
bank between terraces of different levels. 

Then rock gardens vary in effect by the forms of the 
flowers comprised in them, no less than by the colours. 
One may be given up to grassy-leaved or slender- 
stemmed plants, the poppies, viscarias, St. Bruno's 
lily, flaxes, perennial and annual, rose of heaven (agro- 
stemma Cceli rosea), little nodding harebells of blue or 
white, fritillarias, jonquils, salpiglossis, chalk-plants 
(gypsophilas), and grasses. Another may be covered 
by dwarf, solidly-set-together plants, the blooms of 
which do not rise much above the leaves — hybrid 
primroses, auriculas, moss pinks, stonecrops, house- 
leeks, sun roses, forget-me-nots, begonia semperflorens, 
and saxifrages. 

One-plant rockery mounds, by summer-house en- 
trances, or at lawn corners, can be devoted to either 
pinks, dwarf snapdragons, double primroses, lobelias, 
tuberous begonias, carnations, violas, the new strain of 
dwarf sweet Williams, pigmy godetias, nemophilas, 
Drummond's phlox, or violas. 

Novel ideas for two of these rock heaps are the reserv- 
ing one for fairy roses and one for primula obconica. 
Rosa polyantha nana seeds, sown in a moderately 
warmed greenhouse, or on a hot bed in a sunny frame 



232 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

in February or March, should make bushy little shrubs 
for putting out in May, or seed sown in glass-covered 
boxes or pans during summer will quickly germinate, 
and, if seedlings are frame-housed during winter, will 
bloom prodigiously in the rocky nooks by June. It 
is possible that the single flowering specimens of one 
summer may prove double varieties the next. The 
show of tiny red fruits each autumn will be another 
cause for congratulation, and these fairy roses are 
most hardy. 

Primula obconica has long been a cherished green- 
house and window plant, but in all gardens but the 
coldest it can safely be bedded out on a sheltered 
rockery, and will yield forests of its lilac, rose, or 
crimson-purple blossom. The fairy primrose (primula 
Malacoides) is yet more bewitching, and both plants 
can be sown without artificial heat during summer, in 
glass-covered pots inside a south window or frame, 
or in the moderately warm greenhouse in spring. 

Rock-gardens, if elaborate, may include rockery 
arches and caves, from the inner and outer crevices of 
which may come the green fringes of rare ferns, the 
coloured trusses of trailers, notably the sand verbena 
(abronia umbellata), linarias, of which family the 
Kenilworth ivy is a member, and the yellow flax 
(linum flavum), that is so unlike its relatives. 

Stones and flowers are almost invariable com- 
panions where God has been the only gardener ; we 
find the rocks, of many sizes, by the beds of streams 
that feed the roots of water iris, forget-me-nots, and 
pink arrowhead ; the plough turns them up after the 
corn has been cut, with the poppies and scabious ; 
they peer from the cowslip banks, and lie, half- 



ROCKERIES AND THEIR DENIZENS 233 

concealed, in woods, among mosses, primroses, and 
anemones. They are as poetic as the blooms them- 
selves ; the seasons have dealt with them as surely as 
with the mighty trees or the diminutive strawberry 
root ; time has gone to their fashioning, the mosses 
and lichens that cling about them would show as forests 
beneath the microscope. 

A chrysanthemum rock-garden will suggest Japan 
or China, especially if a few single roses are cultivated 
there too, with some irises of the former land's own 
title. Near should rise an almond tree or two, never 
more beautiful then when spreading their pink laden 
boughs above grey stones. 

Sea-beach stones have been declared unfit for 
rockery building as a rule, but if the gardener cares to 
attempt a remarkable feat, and is not far from a coast, 
let her give up a sunny stretch of ground to a carpet 
of sand, on which colossal pebbles, lumps of chalk, 
broken boulders of cliff may be picturesquely grouped 
or strewn in places. She need not prepare the subsoil 
except by digging in a moderate quantity of dry- 
decayed cow-manure. In that unpromising sandy 
waste may be planted sea-hollies (eryngiums), sea- 
lavenders (statices), a little heather, ornamental sea- 
kales, the hardy annual prickly poppies (argemones 
grandiflora and mexicana), one cream, one primrose- 
yellow, both with spined and white-marked foliage, 
beside bushes of feathery tamarisk. If she is tre- 
mendously ambitious she may hollow out a basin 
pool, with uneven edges, coat it inside first with 
cement then with pale sky blue bath enamel, and group 
the tamarisk and sea hollies to one side. That azure 
gleam, underwater (which must be added in dry seasons, 



234 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

baled out if it becomes clouded and green), will do 
much to bring coast-scenery to mind. 

Should there be children in the family a delightful 
series of unadorned sand-heaps might adjoin the sea- 
side rockery, thus obtaining at once a congruous 
environment and bestowing a playground. 

The care of a rock-garden is no more onerous than 
the maintenance of a border. Slugs and snails have 
a trying custom of coming to dwell under the stones, 
but can be trapped or discouraged ; weeds must be 
removed in infancy among delicate-rooting plants ; 
mulches have to be renewed, especially for protective 
purposes at the coming of frosts ; drought must not 
shrivel flower sheets over the stones and the sandy 
soil, that become burning hot themselves during our 
infrequent tropic heat spells. Still, there will be no 
use for the large fork or spade, no demand for liquid 
manure. And a rockery is so generous, it always 
gives the first bloom of the year, and should be pluckily 
floral in December. 

Gardening Proverb. — " A desert's no an ill place for 
everybody." 



CHAPTER XXII 

BEDS OF PERENNIALS AND PRETTY POOLS 

" Asters and golden -rods were the livery which Nature wore. . . . 
The latter alone expressed all the ripeness of the season, and shed 
their mellow lustre over the fields, as if the now declining summer's 
sun had bequeathed its hues to them. It is the floral solstice, a little 
after midsummer, when the particles of golden light, the sun-dust, 
have, as it were, fallen like seeds on the earth and produced these 
blossoms. On every hillside, and in every valley, stood countless 
asters, coreopsises, tansies, golden-rods, and the whole race of yellow 
flowers, like Brahminical devotees, turning steadily with their 
luminary from morning till night." — Thoreau. 

THERE is congruity in the union of these two 
subjects within one chapter, because peren- 
nials always stand in groups around water 
margins. A water garden could be furnished by 
annuals only, but the expedient would be at once 
hard to carry out and insignificant in appearance. 

The motives for filling some beds entirely with plants 
that do not have to be grubbed up in a few months' 
time, that may dwell three or four years where placed, 
and then, after the process of lifting and dividing, be 
restored to their homes, are surely sufficiently obvious ? 
The gardener's pocket is spared, and so is her time : 
she has extra hours for trying experiments — a very 
enthralling business — for tending the rosery, for 
gathering and arranging her blossoms, maybe for 
carrying them to friends, or photographing plants, or 
painting pictures of pet blooms. 



236 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Is there not virtue in a perennial that annuals all 
lack ? The courage that causes the early spring shoots 
to pierce the cold soil, and thereby prophesy summer, 
is as great as the often-hymned hopefulness of the 
snowdrop. The garden becomes one huge message 
of cheer each February when herbaceous plants largely 
compose it. The sprouting of montbretia shoots and 
the " finger-tips " of Solomon's seal, the exquisite 
dove-greys and mauve-blues of columbine foliage, 
the hairy silver-green, fern-shaped leaves of the 
Oriental poppies, the creeping " greenth " of phlox 
stools, the darker mat spread by Michaelmas daisies, 
all these, and other evidences too numerous to quote, 
endear herbaceous plants to the watchful, horticul- 
turist. November will ring the dirge for all tender 
subjects and witness the dying gasps of hardy annuals ; 
true, the herbaceous giants have to be cut down, but 
many, like chrysanthemums, reveal then a wealth of 
young undergrowth that gives quite a happily healthy 
look to the borders. 

Mixed perennials in beds are to be congregated 
irregularly all over the space, as shown by Fig. 68, 
or barred off from the edge by a border of some special 
plant, as indicated by Fig. 69. There is praise due 
to each style. The latter is more decorous, and suits 
a lawn bed, or one in a front garden, where trimness is 
desired ; the former has the merit of offering surprises 
at each step the visitor takes around the bed. 

In every group of perennials there may be other 
plants than those named, others with them. Bulbs 
can be dibbled into the ground among the closely 
clustering primroses, saxifrages, violas, rock-cresses, 
woodruff, etc., etc., for daffodil lances and tulip 



BEDS OF PERENNIALS 



237 



swords, as well as innumerable further vigorous sub- 
jects, can be trusted to pierce a way through foliage. 
The larger and stronger growing the perennial, the 
sturdier or taller should be its bulbous companion. 




Fig. 68. A Round Bed of Perennials. 

Under the hollyhocks herbaceous gladioli will do no 
harm, sunflowers and montbretias will thrive together 
for years, St. Bruno's lily can front the cone flowers, 
Spanish iris make blue and yellow or bronze and purple 
harmonies with perennial larkspurs, monkshood, and 
pyrethrums. The combinations are endless. A 



238 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

gardener might spend some useful evening hours in- 
doors in compiling a list of the most admirable unions. 
There are diverse purposes to be observed in planting 
perennial beds ; all need not be followed at once, 




Fig. 69. A Bordered Bed ofJPermanent Plants. 

fortunately, or the gardener's hair might speedily 
silver ; indeed, the best displays result when too much 
is not attempted. A mixed bed may be planned for the 
simultaneous blossoming of the plants, which must 
then be selected all of colours certain to be kind to 
one another, or for a lengthy succession of bloom, 
which means that scarlet Oriental poppies and magenta 
phloxes can appear side by side, because under no 
circumstances will they be out together. These two 
plants are but an example of a principle, of course ; 
even salmon-pink and rose-pink flowers might be 
neighbours, if one was a spring, the other an autumn 
beauty. 



BEDS OF PERENNIALS 239 

A percentage only of the perennials named in Figures 
68 and 69 require describing ; all the rest will be, by 
now, known to the reader. Yellow toad-flax is one 
of the tall linarias, of which linaria dalmatica is best, 
an elegant blue-grey leaved plant, covered over with 
sprays of lemon-gold. The orange Welsh poppy 
(meconopsis Cambrica plena) is rather a recent intro- 
duction, an almost perfect vase flower. White flea- 
bane (erigeron Coulteri) is blessed with daisy-like 
gold centres. Scarlet cinquefoils are several, but the 
potentilla known as Gibson's scarlet should be the choice 
if the price of a shilling a plant is not considered too 
extravagant ; it is a glorious hue. Fair Maids of 
France, popular in our great-grandmother's parterres, 
is to be found catalogued as ranunculus aconitifolius. 
The scarlet Palestine ranunculus, or crowsfoot, should 
inhabit every garden under the sun that it loves so 
fondly ; some people call it the scarlet buttercup. It 
proves hardy in most places. White spiderwort 
(tradescantia virginica alba), the foam flower (tiarella 
cordifolia), white scabious (scabiosa caucasica alba), the 
yellow scabious (scabiosa lutea), the yellow monks- 
hood (aconitum lycoctonum), the purple turban 
campanula, or bellflower (campanula turbinata), are 
all hardy and valuable. Purple sandwort (arenaria 
purpurescens) has blossom on its trailing stems from 
the beginning of June until September. 

But perennials can be grouped, or dotted singly, 
to form pattern beds instead of conglomerate ones. 
All tastes should be suited, if the garden is large enough. 
Some designs of requisite simplicity are supplied 
here. As herbaceous plants spread rapidly, with few 
exceptions, they cannot wisely be used to carry out 



240 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

elaborate devices, unless the gardener wants to be 
obliged to thin them out each year. Fig. 70 illustrates 
the setting of two sizes in dot-plants, white dragon's- 
head (dracocephalum virginicum), a beautiful stately 
grower, and a white giant-blooming double daisy (bellis 




Fig. 70. A Pattern Bed of Perennials. 

perennis, Snowflake), on a groundwork, B, of mossy 
saxifrage (saxifraga hypnoides), which will give snowy 
masses early, but be only a parsley-like carpet later, 
round a centre group, A, of the blue knapweed 
(centaurea montana). If these cornflower-like blooms 



BEDS OF PERENNIALS 241 

are cut off when faded, therefore seed pods are 
checked, they will be yielded from May's end until 
October's. The line C might be of the deep blue 
bugle, with handsomely silver marked foliage (ajuga 
reptans variegata), an inexpensive, dense grower; the 




Fig. 71. A Bed for Flaxes. 

space D will want the brilliance of gold, and nothing 
could be better than a viola, for the sake of the pansy 
tribe's well-known constancy, while the edge should 
match the inner line. An all-summer bed this, of 
purplish-blue, yellow, and white. 

Fig. 71 was designed to show off flaxes, which are 

R 



242 EVERY WOMAN'S^FLOWER GARDEN 

not sufficiently appreciated. Owners of dry, sandy 
gardens would do well to specialise in these grass- 
stemmed beauties, which are willing, however, to 
thrive elsewhere. A, blue flax (linum perenne), two 
feet ; B, evergreen flax, dwarf, yellow (linum arboreum) ; 

C, white flax (linum monogynum), one and a half feet ; 

D, deeper blue flax (linum Narbonense) fifteen inches ; 




Fig. 72. A Pointed Oval. 

E, golden flax (linum flavum), blooms in trusses on 
almost trailing stems. 

Most of the charm of the bed Fig. 72 is due, 
undoubtedly, to its own outline, but this whole form 
can be used as an inner ornament for an oblong bed, if 
desired. The chief portion, A, might consist of the 
orange avens (geum Heldreichii) a compacter plant 
than the familiar scarlet avens, but just as hardy and 
floriferous. At B a lovely rich colour blend would be 
the result of using the dwarf violet Michaelmas daisy 
known as aster amellus elegans, but violet pansies, or 
violas, would also supply the identical shade. The 
end-pieces, C, would complete the colour scheme best 



BEDS OF IPERENNIALS 



243 



if of heliotrope violas, and cream violas might edge this 
bed, at D. 
Three colours, no more, should be seen in the bed 







L 








<b 








<b 






*■ 




















<* 








% 






C 







Fig. 73. The Three-colour Bed. 

made like Fig. 73, or the cross shape will be spoilt 
It is admirable for fitting, endwise, into the corner 
of a grass plot. If A were of the magenta-carmine 




Fig. 74. A very Formal Design. 

campion, of white woolly foliage, that has cheered 
gardens for more years than can be reckoned, the 
portions B of red double daisies, and the lines C of 
old-fashioned white pinks, there would be effect even if 
the campion ceased to blossom. A decided improve- 
ment, however, would be the outlining of A with a 



244 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

single tuft row of London pride, to give a barrier 
between grey and white leaves. 

Fig. 74 is so ruthlessly formal that some gardeners 
will be disgusted by its rather aggressive patterns. 




Fig. 75. A Design for Large Beds. 

However, of its originality there can be no question, 
and the appearance becomes softened by the choice of 
orange Iceland poppies for the lines B, on a carpet of 
variegated white rock-cress, with dwarf blue Michaelmas 
daisies, or a compact maroon snapdragon, at C. 

The carpet of the design Fig. 75 is vastly important, 
constituting as it does the major portion of the bed. 



BEDS OF PERENNIALS 245 

For this reason a plant sure to be always attractive is 
needed here, and the red alum root is suitable. Never 
mind its height, that is solely measured by the nodding, 
delicately drooping sprays of little florets ; the foliage 
makes a close and quite low mass, composed of leaves 
of an exquisite contour that will become autumn- 
tinted. Heuchera sanguinea is by no means the only 
tall perennial that can be recommended for covering 
soil right up to the margin of grass or gravel. Certainly 
a tall flower must occupy spaces B, but preferably a 
solid kind of one : white double sweet Williams, so 
valuable for cutting, might be there, white snap- 
dragons, phloxes, or early chrysanthemums ; and the 
sharp corner points, C, cutting into the expanse of 
alum-root, would surely please if of deep red bedding 
pansies, since the heuchera has the shade that com- 
bines either with scarlet or ruby crimson. 

When perennials are grouped by the waterside it 
should be in all sorts of odd shapes, no two alike, and 
on a variety of levels. Some of the margin ground 
ought to slope sharply, other parts undulate, like a 
range of hills, for monotony displeases painfully where a 
pool shows, though it is sometimes best by grand lakes. 

Making a sunk basin is not too difficult or laborious 
for the woman gardener ; once the shape is scooped 
out, the introduction of some rank clay, and half an 
hour's hard ramming down, will give a solid base on 
which water will rest. Failing the clay, Portland 
cement must be mixed with water and a little sand 
until it is a stiff paste, a layer of this spread over and 
left twelve hours to harden, two other layers applied 
after similar delays, and the task is completed. 

But this will be a pool that will occasionally 



246 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

overflow and flood the neighbourhood. To conduct rain- 
water into a pool, from the roof of a summer-house or 
shed at no great distance, is fairly easy. There must 
be a guttering round the roof, then a hole is cut in 
this, and a length of pipe is fitted with its end under 
that hole. The pipe must run straight down the wall, 
and be either curved or fitted into another that will 
conduct the water underground to the miniature pond. 

Supposing that the roof and guttering already fill a 
rain-water butt, the pipe newly introduced should 
have a filtering cap over its hole, the kind of lid, 
perforated in a few places, that is over a tin of carbolic 
powder. That will mean that only a little water will 
take its exit from the guttering down that pipe, the 
principal supply flowing, as desirable, into the butt. 

We see how water can be got into the pool. How 
can it be prevented from overflowing ? Why, by 
inserting an open-mouthed pipe, of course, in the 
concave side of the basin, just at the level the water 
must not exceed. And this overflow pipe must take 
the surplus water away underground, to some ditch 
or deep catch-pit, or to form another pool in the 
wettest weather, or to keep a lower level of soil damp 
enough for a bog garden to be planted there. These 
are alternatives to the overflows being admitted to 
some already existing drain, the most workmanlike 
finish conceivable ; but this must only be a water 
drain, not a sewer pipe, or trapping will be necessary 
for sanitation. 

Ingenuity, impelled by fervour, can perform mar- 
vels. A charming little sunk basin pool has been fed 
and drained before now by lengths of disused india- 
rubber hose ! 




: ZM .... : : .'.;■'■ ■--■-: 

WmUm 
■■■■-■ 

iW fir 




A POOL WITH SHELVING BANKS 



BEDS OF PERENNIALS 247 

When the pool is of uneven shape, has tongues of 
soil running into it and gently shelving banks, some 
large stones should lie about picturesquely, and the 
bottom may, or may not, be lined with pebbles. A 
log seat, an old wood stump or two, a roughly con- 
structed bit of espalier fencing, natural trunk pillars 
for climbers, such as single roses or traveller's joy, a 
plank bridge thrown across the water, stepping-stones, 
are all suitable adjuncts. 

An illustration of the unsymmetrical pool is offered 
by Fig. 76. The ground can be part gravel, part 
soil, planted with little perennials, or else turf dotted 
about with daffodils, crocuses, wood-sorrels (oxalises), 
cowslips, native orchis, etc. No rare plants are men- 
tioned, the giant knotweed being the polygonum 
sacchalinense advised for shady spots ; the forget- 
me-not should be the tall bright blue, myosotis 
palustris. Owing to the boldness of the shrub groups, 
and the presence of the three trees, the " lady birch/ ' 
" golden chain," and pink almond, the nearly con- 
stant gold of gorse, for which clump a dwarf sort 
should be used against the familiar " whin," the roses 
matching the white and pink phloxes and yielding 
also a deeper red tone, the rich and pale blues and 
violet purples of the Japanese irises offering a dark 
note, this scene will be charming nearly the whole 
year. 

Contrary to general imagination water-lilies do 
not demand much depth, two feet of water being sum 
cient for most varieties, and three feet only being essen- 
tial to the immense species. The easiest way to plant 
is to insert a root, or number of roots, in a wicker 
basket, or wisp of straw matting, filled with a compost 



BEDS OF PERENNIALS 249 

of two parts stiff loam and one part old manure, 
adding a stone weighty enough for ballast. The white 
water-weed (aponogeton) which, by-the-bye, is delight- 
fully fragrant, should be planted in a small pot, sus- 
pended just below water from a stake previously 
driven upright in the bottom of the basin. 

One of the lesser water-lilies (nymphae) may be placed 
on the round basin which is shown in Fig. 77 reposing 
in the midst of a mere garden border filled with 
moisture-loving plants. Even if a pool does not flood 
its surrounding soil at times there is always dampness 
of atmosphere about it, vaporous exhalations that 
are more beneficial to some herbaceous subjects and 
shrubs than to others. The meadowsweet may be any 
of the taller spiraeas, the hops should be given an odd- 
shaped rustic pole, with cross-bar, on which to climb, 
or else a dead fir tree, branches and all, some defunct 
pyramidal conifer moved from the shrubbery or lawn. 
Pink willow-herb is the native ditch-side epilobium, 
but there are improved, florists' varieties, in bright rose 
or white ; spray-bushes are the cotoneasters, of 
prostrate habit, such as cotoneaster microphylla, an 
evergreen shrub with red berries, or the higher coton- 
easter Simonsii, crimson-fruited. Hooded violets (viola 
cucullata), which come to us from America, are swamp 
lovers. Ghent azaleas, or some other hardy species, 
will flourish, and give a glorious blossom outburst in 
May if relieved of their seed-pods after each flowering 
season ; without this attention the plants become 
exhausted. Wild strawberries (fragaria) are prettiest 
of trailers and would be worth cultivating if only to 
delight the birds when they come to drink and bathe 
in the water. Cuckoopint,_the classic " lady's smock " 



BEDS OF PERENNIALS 251 

(cardamine), may appear in its double blooming variety 
of May (cardamine pratensis, flore plena), or the pink- 
lilac single, and earlier, cardamine latifolia. 

Other fascinating flowers to grow in the water 
garden are American cowslips (dodecatheons), lilac 
or red-purple, about a foot tall, the one-foot early 
pale yellow leopard's bane (doronicum caucasicum), 
blue lyme grass, three feet (elymus racemosus), for 
its steely blades, day lilies, tobacco plants, the giant 
blue lettuces (lactuca gigantea and Plumieri), alpine 
mimuluses, gorgeous double paeonies, the plume poppy 
(bocconia cordata), rosin plants (silphiums), six to 
eight feet, yellow, columbines, ox-eye daisies, the 
myrtle-leaved rhododendron, rose, globe flowers, Japan- 
ese primroses (primula japonica), crimson, rose, or 
purplish whorls of blossom, rising one to three feet 
from the luxuriant foliage tufts, golden rods, and the 
hardy pitcher plant (sarracenia purpurea). 

A temporary entourage for a pool may be made by 
sinking pot myrtles, palms, and royal ferns (osmunda 
regalis), aspidistras too, yellow musk, the blue leadwort 
(plumbago capensis), and fuchsias from the conserva- 
tory, and sowing stretches of ground, in March 
and April, with bartonia aurea, centranthus macro- 
siphon, red or white, chrysanthemum coronarium, 
Collin's flower (collinsias), Virginian stock, sweet 
alyssum, convolvulus minor, gilia tricolour, miniature 
sunflowers, giant annual sunflowers, American ground- 
sel (Jacobaea), mallow- worts, and the four-inch violet 
cress (ionopsidium acaule). 

All pools have to be cleaned out and furnished with 
a fresh supply of water at times. This can only be 
done by baling out, unless there is an emptying pipe, 



252 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

stopped by a tap, at the base. If the woman gardener 
is having a basin manufactured by any professional 
she should request the addition of this convenient tap. 
Gold and silver -fish will live in artificial pools, if 
there is some leaf-shelter from fierce sunheat, supplies 
of correct foods are regularly provided, and cats do 
not abound. 

Gardening Proverb. — " One man's ditch may be river 
to another." 



CHAPTER XXIII 

DAHLIAS AND CHRYSANTHEMUMS 

"... The high red walls, which are growing grey 
With their lichen and moss embroideries, 
Seem sadly and sternly to shut out Life, 
Because it is often as sad as they : 
Where even the bee has time to glide 
(Gathering gaily his honeyed store) 
Right to the heart of the old-world flowers, — 
China-asters and purple stocks, 
Dahlias and tall red hollyhocks, 
Laburnums raining their golden showers, 
Columbines prim of the folded core, 
And lupins, and larkspur, and London pride." 

Violet Fane. 

WHAT an injured plant is the dahlia ! To 
begin with, people have so adopted its 
wrong pronunciation (using the " a " as 
though it were only the first letter of the alphabet, 
not as though, by tacking it on to the h, it signifies the 
Swedish name, Dahl, of the discoverer), that to speak 
of it correctly, as if it were spelt " darhlia," now sounds 
too pedantically ridiculous. Secondly, affected men 
and women like to sneer at lovers of the " gaudiest 
flower/' ignoring the delicate charm of the lemon, 
white, blush, and pale lilac varieties. Thirdly, it 
stands, in the language of flowers, as symbolising 
" pomp." Fourthly, persons speak of it as resembling 
blossoms cut out of turnips. Poets have scarcely 
ever given it the slightest praise, and floriculturists, 



254 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

who ought to be ashamed of themselves, try to produce 
dahlias of freak dimensions for exhibition tables, and 
grow the plant in allotment-resembling plots, among 
stakes bearing inverted flower-pots ! If one is invited 
to inspect the collection of a noted dahlia grower, even 
an amateur who, presumably, pursues a hobby, not a 
trade, one knows what one will see. Those odious 
rows and blocks of clumsily tied up specimens, the 
manure heaps against the stems, the intervening earth 
tramped hard, or made into mud and foot-prints, no 
attempt at colour harmonising, and those awful pots 
on sticks, the earwig traps which, by-the-bye, are 
quite as much needed by hollyhocks or sunflowers, 
yet would not be tolerated beside them. 

There may be two opinions as to the merits of show 
dahlias, those that certainly look as though carved, 
though not out of turnips, those solid balls of closely- 
laid petals, all hard to the touch ; but the single dahlia 
is pre-eminently an artist's blossom, of fair, simple, 
wide-opened shape ; and could any bloom be more 
elegant than the single cactus, or thread dahlia, with 
those wondrous twists and curls of the filament petals, 
and the droop of the gold-eyed face ? 

The double cactus dahlia stands unrivalled for range 
of colour, and even the rose cannot compete with the 
dark red, maroon, mulberry, black-claret varieties 
for velvet gloss or silvery surface sheen. Granted 
there is a heavy look about the flowers of dark shades, 
is it not folly to expect all merits at once ? There is 
an oriental, luscious, prodigal beauty in these dusky 
introductions from Mexico and Peru. Contemplate 
cactus dahlias of medium tints, and light ones, note 
how the greens of different varieties, even the golds 



DAHLIAS AND^CHRYSANTHEMUMS 255 

of the centres, vary to suit the petal colours, selfs or 
blends, and by degrees there will be felt just indignation 
that the best aesthetic sense and a love of this flower 
have even been thought incompatible. 

The gardener who likes to take up a defence of the 
dahlia can best do so by cultivating it as a garden 
ornament, never as a personal trophy. 

In 1840 appeared a new edition of a splendid book 
on gardening, by Mr. MTntosh (gardener to His Majesty 
the King of the Belgians, at Claremont), and so in- 
structive are his words on the dahlia that no apology 
is needed for reviving some of them. He begins by 
noting the incorrect pronunciation, and goes on to 
teach us : 

" As this name had previously been given to a very 
different plant, botanists changed it to Georgina, in 
honour of Lady Holland, who reintroduced the plants 
in 1804, a ^ er they had been lost for fifteen years. 
The first name, however, had become too generally 
used to be displaced. There are two distinct species, 
Dahlia variabilis, with fertile rays, and Dahlia coccinea, 
with barren rays, both natives of the high, sandy plains 
of Mexico, where they were found by Baron Humboldt 
in 1798, the parents of the innumerable varieties 
yearly increasing in our gardens." 

The author answers, in precious detail, the question 
how to gain a stock. 

" As the native soil of the dahlia is said to be sandy, 
the artificial must be rather light and free than heavy, 
and a good compost for seedlings may be made with 
sandy loam and peat, or thoroughly rotted dung, to 
enrich it. The most approved method is to forward 
the germination of dahlia seed by heat, but it will rise 



256 EVERY WOMAN'SfFLOWER GARDEN 

if sown in a warm, well-sheltered border in April, or 
early in May, taking care to protect the young plants 
from accidental frosts. ... It may be sown in pans 
even a month earlier than this, if these are kept within 
doors at night and in very cold weather, and only set 
out of doors on mild days to inure the plants to open 
exposure. Much cold, or the slightest frost, will kill 
them. 

"Treated in this way the young plants, if planted 
in tolerably large pots and plunged into the open 
ground in the beginning of June, may, if the season be 
favourable, be brought to flower late in the autumn. 

" It is a more certain method, however, when arti- 
ficial heat can be had, to sow the seed in pots or pans 
about the middle of February, or beginning of March, 
placing them in a hotbed frame, or in any artificial 
heat fromjifty to sixty degrees Fahrenheit. Soon 
after the seed-leaves appear they may either be set 
out in a moderate heat, or potted and placed in a 
cold frame, which, however, must be covered at night 
with mats. Care must be taken to place them near 
the glass of the frame, otherwise they will grow weak 
and lanky." 

So far so good. Afterwards, though ? Our author 

adds : 

" The seedlings should be transplanted into rows 
three feet apart, and two distant from each other/' 
But we may use the science and reject the design : 
in rows, bordering a walk, dahlias will look noble* 
but we do not want them in squadrons. A valuable 
piece of advice follows. " They will blow perhaps 
in July, or later, and when good varieties are obtained 
they may be taken up with balls of earth, potted in 



DAHLIAS AND CHRYSANTHEMUMS 257 

sizes adapted to their magnitude, and removed into 
the greenhouse early in October to continue their 
bloom. ,, 

If the plants were cultivated in enormous pots, 
sunk in the garden, they could be lifted better ; and a 
greenhouse is not essential — they would bloom in 
sunny room windows. 

Seed is sold of all classes of dahlias, show, cactus, 
single, paeony-flowered, single cactus, pompon, and 
Tom Thumb, and the semi-doubles that result largely 
from seed of " cactus " dahlias are exceptionally 
beautiful. There is also an eighteen-inch race of 
single dahlias, called " Early dwarf, ' Harbinger/ " 
of many colours, that from March-raised seedlings will 
give blossom in June. 

" Till a seedling plant shows its flowers," says Mr. 
MTntosh, " there are no means of ascertaining its 
qualities, though the colours may be guessed at from 
the stems, white sorts having perfectly green stems, 
dark sorts brown or purple stems, and pale sorts lighter 
coloured stems. These distinctions, however," he 
somewhat disappointingly declares, " are by no means 
constant. The time to judge of a flower is early in 
the morning, both the colour and the form being 
changed by bright sunshine. The first, or earlier 
flowers, are also better than those produced late in 
autumn." 

Truly our forerunners in floriculture took their 
work seriously, as these last reflections prove. The 
woman gardener might care to specialise in raising 
her own dahlias, hoping to get eventually one of rare 
colour, or of such uncommon shape that it might give 
rise to a fresh race. 

s 



258 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Another writer, about fifteen years later, called the 
poor dahlia " a floral upstart/' and averred that " the 
original single-flowered plant, from Mexico, first 
claimed the attention of horticulturists as an edible 
root, whose repulsive, nauseous, peppery taste inspires 
equal disgust in man and beast." After abusing it 
further, as " a made flower," and lamenting its want of 
perfume, Mr. Eugene Sebastian Delamer went on to 
surmise : 

" Perhaps, though not probably, a blue, perfumed 
dahlia will start from the earth, in which case, those 
which now figure in the parterre will have to hide their 
diminished heads." 

Still, we may forgive him, because he has given us 
also plain instructions on some crucial points. 

" In forming a collection of dahlias, the general 
mode is to order the number required of a nursery- 
man, in good time during the winter. . . . They will 
arrive some time in spring, in the shape of rooted 
cuttings two or three inches high, in small pots, and 
must be kept in a greenhouse or a frame till the end 
of May, or such times as all danger of frost is over in 
that locality." 

Finest varieties cost now from two to six shillings 
a dozen, so the outlay need not be ruinous. The 
collarette dahlia, which has a crown of short petals 
inside the single outer ones, is exceedingly popular 
now. The pseony dahlia is a giant indeed, and mag- 
nificent for huge borders or shrubberies. 

Home-stored dahlia tubers should be brought out 
at the end of March, and laid on a gentle hotbed in a 
frame, failing this on damp sand, in trays, inside a 
greenhouse or sunny window. Large tubers, when they 



DAHLIAS AND CHRYSANTHEMUMS 259 

sprout, are divided, leaving one " eye " on each 
portion. If the weather is safe by then they can be 
planted out at once, otherwise must be potted up and 
housed where there is plenty of fresh air but no frost, 
to be planted in June. Tubers can, of course, be bought 
in March, if preferred to young plants. 

Others of Mr. Delamer's worthy hints concern the 
preservation of the plants from enemies ; 

" The stem is fragile, and apt to be blown down, or 
snapped short, by high winds ; it is therefore best 
supported by a stake inserted into the ground at the 
time of planting the root or cutting. The young 
shoots are apt to be eaten off by slugs and snails, 
which must be driven off, or destroyed, by circles of 
lime and ashes, or by waterings with lime water. The 
blossoms are apt to be bitten and spoiled by hungry 
earwigs, to obviate whose onslaughts traps of hollow 
bean-stalks, to be inspected once or twice a day, are 
hung at enticing intervals amidst the foliage." 

Dahlia tubers should be left in the ground some 
weeks after autumn's light frosts have blackened the 
foliage, for they are still ripening, and drawing nourish- 
ment in on which they are to survive the winter. The 
beginning weeks of November are usually best for 
lifting them. After lying a few hours in sunshine and 
wind they should be housed, covered by perfectly dry 
cocoanut-fibre refuse, in a dry cupboard or cellar ; 
or tubers can be left out for two or three years, until 
they throw poor blooms through being overcrowded. 
A six-inch deep layer of ashes will keep frost from them. 

Outdoor chrysanthemum seed, sown in January 
and February, in a temperature of sixty-five degrees, 
should give plants to flower from the middle of August 



260 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

onwards ; seed sown in March will yield plants for 
blooming in September and October, " singles " being 
the quickest. There are no special difficulties of 
culture, as seedlings do not have to be pinched back, 
or deprived of top or side buds. Magnificent varieties 
are so cheap, though, and it is such an advantage to 
know the heights and colours, that purchase of plants 
is best for garden decoration. 

The first week of May is the professional grower's 
pet time for planting out chrysanthemums ; once 
placed they may stop, to increase for two or three 
years, but overcrowded stools cannot give fine bloom, 
so it is only common prudence to lift, at least outer 
portions of clumps, in March, when every detached 
bit will be a rooted specimen for use elsewhere. 

Liquid manures should be given each week after 
buds appear, and a mulch of fresh loam and leaf 
mould should protect the plants each winter. 

There are early chrysanthemum varieties for July, 
August, September, and October blossom ; heights 
vary from one foot to five feet and a half ; colours 
cannot be mentioned, so myriad are they. 

The dahlia and the chrysanthemum may be well 
grown together, the latter of varieties half the stature 
of the former. Extraordinary floral masses are thus 
gained for beds, borders, or bank-sides and summits, 
shrubbery foregrounds, or thickets enclosing seats 
and summer-houses. 

The single and the Japanese chrysanthemums are 
best for gathering, and most graceful in beds, accom- 
panied by the dwarf pompons. " Lady Fitzwigram " 
is described as perhaps the finest early white ever 
raised ; the blooms, which have long and twisted petals, 



DAHLIAS AND CHRYSANTHEMUMS 261 

measure five inches from tip to tip. Cactus is a rather 
small but novel-shaped variety, of fiery terra-cotta ; 
Flambeau is an exquisite red-salmon. But to praise 
individuals, out of so vast a crowd of beauties, is an 
ungrateful attempt. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Leave choice alone when you 
can't tell the difference." 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE WINTER GARDEN 

"... While the echoing tempests beat around 
Within the impervious covert of the wood 
Of ancient hollies, whose umbrageous heads 
The gusts of autumn have in vain assail'd, 
Range we secure, and view the distant scene." 

GlSBORNE. 

WHO will deny that the garden is frequently 
delightful as a pleasure resort during 
winter ? August days are often chilly out 
of doors, November ones genial ; January afternoons 
are sometimes balmy, February may exult in a spell 
of high temperatures and south-west winds. But the 
best-made garden should have at least one area in which 
horticultural art has fashioned such bowers, screens, 
and foliage and floral effects, that nipping winds will 
be kept at bay, and the eye be almost cheated, even 
during a sharp winter, into the belief that spring has 
dawned. 

Quite apart from the pleasure of rambling the walks 
where concentrated sunshine dwells, the gardener ought 
to find plenty of glad pride in having brought together 
numbers of plants and shrubs that carry fair fruits or 
blossoms at the quarter when most gardens are devoid 
of colour. She will have to introduce many unfamiliar 
subjects, if the thing is to be fully done. 

There are southern, south-coast, and valley gardens 



THE WINTER GARDEN 263 

in which the climate will render the task easy ; in all 
others discretion should be observed in planting. Now 
discretion does not mean avoidance of experiment — 
heaven forbid ! Sites must be provided, draughts 
and sweeping gales intercepted by solid barriers, or 
perhaps a deep dell be dug out in an open expanse. In 
a pit twelve feet deep and twenty-four wide there will 
exist several varying bank-wall aspects, various tem- 
peratures at different levels up them, and, by setting a 
coronet hedge along the top, yet greater shelter is 
gained. A gravelled slope, edged by an espalier line 
of trained Japanese roses on one side, and a fencing 
supporting the firethorn and daphne mezereum on the 
other, may be the path of entrance and exit. If the 
bank sides have big boulders and slabs of rock, and 
logs of wood, driven into them here and there, to hold 
up the earth and make some useful plateaux for 
planting, there will be no danger of subsidence. A 
closer kind of rockery might be constructed on the side 
that is shady. Damp flooring will be troublesome unless 
the gravel base is some inches higher in the middle than 
at the sides, while catch-pit drains should carry off the 
surplus water that is bound to drain down the slopes. 
In a dell garden of this class, among evergreen 
dwarf bushes of laurustinus, spotted laurels, yews, 
privets, euonymuses, firs, and veronicas, dwarf plants 
ought never to leave off blossoming. Pansies, double 
daisies, violas, the horned violet (viola cornuta), the 
violettas too, primroses and polyanthuses, aubrietias, 
are examples of the plucky perennials that will be 
reluctant to leave off budding. The veronica shrubs, 
in purple or deep blue, the whitish blossoming laurus- 
tinus will similarly continue flowering. 



264 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

A winter garden on the ordinary level has more to 
contend with. The extensive use of evergreens, for 
hedges and protective belts, of odd lengths of old 
grey wood close fences, or walls built of old brick, will 
do most to create a false temperature for the neigh- 
bouring beds and borders. By sheltering a given 
area all round first — not necessarily in a straight line 
on each side — then by forming additional screens within 
the space, by bringing evergreen clumps so close to- 
gether that winds cannot possibly play havoc among 
such barriers, the welcome false temperature will be 
felt by the visitor as also by the vegetation. 

A common design for a rosery was the square, 
marked off by giant hedges, a broad walk all round, 
another, rather lower, hedge-frame border against this, 
then four big square beds, arches spanning the narrow 
paths between them, and some centre ornament for the 
gravel cross-road junction. This makes an admirable 
plan for laying out a winter garden. The double 
hedge should not have entrance and exit arches to face 
each other, as that would mean draughts ; those 
necessary gaps should be separated by some yards. 
A glance at Fig. 78 will explain the design. 

As arches obstruct sunshine they are better dispensed 
with, except in the hedge gaps, but even there any of 
the pretty winter climbers, to be mentioned later in a 
review of plants, might be grown against the evergreen 
background. Because the presence of any water 
must cool atmosphere the centre ornament should not 
be a fountain ; a sundial is manifestly incongruous, 
but a stone vase, filled with a barberry (berberis aqui- 
folium, or mahonia, as it is sometimes called), hepaticas, 
crocuses, or snowdrops, with overhanging yellow 



THE WINTER GARDEN 



265 



stonecrop, would be satisfactory. A vase always 
looks best upon a pedestal to match : one, thus 
mounted complete, in buff or grey hard-fired earthen- 
ware, able to stand frost, costs about two pounds 



'• ■ •^'•' ■ • . • ■i " i ' : • ■ ••;• ■ * . • ■ •• •'•' ■ • ■ "'•'•'•'• ■ " '•'•!' ■ * ' ' ■ ? , • • , ' : ; .ir;V i V -Vr , , >' ■ •• •■'■• ■ 'V ' 



n 



jsirfe^M^ 



BORDER 




PATH 



Q 







VASEt— — 



Di 



Li 



' %*# " 

Fig. 78. The Hedge-sheltered Garden. 

ten shillings. Second-hand vases of somewhat similar 
character can occasionally be picked up cheaply at 
sales at country houses. 

The second design, Fig. 79, consists of borders and 
paths, the outward conducting walks being alter- 
nately at the ends and the sides. It can be extended 
to cover any sized plot of land. A semi-maze is this, 



266 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

without any endeavour to bewilder the visitor. If 
the long, narrow border beds held evergreen shrubs 
in the middle, and dwarf or medium tall perennials 
for foregrounds, it naturally follows that both those 
plants and the paths would receive an abnormal 
amount of shelter, so that when the sun was high in 
the heavens there would be great ground warmth. 




' ■; 'y-v. '' '" ' "'''■■ '-h ' 



Fig. 79. A Maze Garden. 

Another idea would be to place the evergreens, as 
hedges, right against the inner edges of the borders 
round the centre plot, and concentrate the perennials 
on the outer edges in each case. This would 
afford more variety of treatment, and require less 
space. 

Either of the winter gardens shown is limited in 
nature, and could be employed as part of more elabor- 
ate schemes. Whenever there is a wide border run- 
ning beside a lofty wall facing south, use should be made 
of it for the culture of winter flowers, leaves, and fruits ; 



THE WINTER GARDEN 267 

no heat is superior for the purpose to that which is 
radiated from sun-baked brick, both as encourage- 
ment to trained shrubs and climbers, and for taking 
chill off the soil beyond those. On the other side of 
the path abutting upon the border might be turf, or 
another border for pansies, primroses, and polyan- 
thuses, or wholly for bulbous subjects ; the heights 
of the last-named would not be detrimental ; all the 
majestic lilies, irises, and gladioli of summer could 
rear their proud heads there, but no shrubs or tall 
evergreen plants should be set in that border, or else 
the winter garden would be robbed of some of the 
priceless sunshine. 

Fear of failures should not deter the planter of that 
dull-season border ; she will be so enraptured by the 
successes that a small measure of loss will be soon 
forgotten. Some of the wall-ornaments she ought to 
set up are not quite hardy, but, if the soil is deep and 
good as well as adequately drained, and copious 
dry mulches, of cinders, short-cut old horse-manure, 
cocoanut-fibre refuse, even, perhaps, chopped gorse 
boughs, or heather, are given over the roots, the brick 
shelter will probably do enough to safeguard the 
branches. It is an excellent plan to mix fertilised 
hop manure with any of the mulching materials. Of 
course some pet climbers could have a little bracken 
fir, a bunch of gorse boughs, or " feathery " faggots 
tied against them at winter's beginning, which will 
break the force of gales, and check frosts, but not an 
inch of canvas or sacking should disfigure the scene. 
It is surely ridiculous to set out to make a garden 
attractive during the cold weather, and then swathe 
shrubs up in hideous wrappings ? And climbers can 



268 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

be almost as well grown against a fence or a close 
hedge as with a wall at their backs. 

One word on a most important aid to triumph. 
The border and path will have two ends, no matter 
how far separated : one will be east, the other west, 
and both should be thoroughly blocked across or 
screened off, the walk being made to turn aside so 
that a dense evergreen belt, a fence or wall, can stand 
jutting right out for at least twelve feet. Gales from 
the west, stinging blasts from the east, will thus be 
warned off the premises. Many a shrub that would 
go out of bloom as a bush will continue floriferous 
when nailed to a south wall. Try the laurustinus so, 
several veronicas, and even barberries. It is a wholly 
admirable attempt too to train up November and 
December blossoming chrysanthemums, and stimulate 
them by liquid manure. Unless the weather is very 
severe, which it seldom is before Christmas, there will 
be a glorious colour show from these plants, which 
had better be tall varieties. 

Another " wrinkle " is to treat the pink China rose, 
known as the monthly rose, in the same manner ; it 
may be a mass of buds, and open flowers too, until 
January, and will quickly make up its mind to start 
again for spring. Obviously to secure a notable 
display there must be many trees thus trained, but 
every south wall owner can experiment with a single 
specimen. There are white and red China roses ; none 
are so brave as the ancient favourite, though. 

Now what else shall the wall show off ? Room should 
be spared for the evergreen, self -clinging Virginian 
creeper, if only as a background for yellow jasmines ; 
a traveller's joy may keep enough of its silver feathery 



THE WINTER GARDEN 269 

seed carpels to be worth a place ; variegated Japan- 
ese honeysuckle always gives gaiety to a spot, and 
may be employed partly to support the rather delicate 
kinsman known as lonicera f ragrantissima, which yields 
white perfumed blossom in January and February. The 
allspice, or winter sweet (chimonanthus fragran) beats 
this in pluck, if not in appearance, and has a delicious 
" sniff " about it too,for it offers its queer brownish-gold, 
purple-marked flowers in December and January, one 
of which is sufficient to scent a drawing-room. 

Spray-bushes (cotoneasters) are as advisable as 
barberries and Japanese roses, both for nailing to the 
wall and for furnishing the border, on account of the 
berries they contrive to carry until spring if the birds 
will but spare them. The fire-thorn (Crataegus pyra- 
cantha) looks splendid nailed up so that its vermilion- 
laden branches are seen between the snow-white ones 
of two foreground bushes of the snowberry tree 
(symphoricarpus radicans). 

A wonderful treasure for the winter garden is the 
Glastonbury thorn (Crataegus prsecox). Let it be there 
by the dozen, if the ground can be spared. This is 
said to be the " staff brought to England by St. Joseph 
of Arimathea, ,, and the stock of the shrub has sprung 
from the famous tree at Glastonbury Abbey. Gen- 
erally it bursts into bloom at Yuletide. Hawthorns 
are crataeguses too, and their lavish fruiting adds a 
warm look to a border. 

The golden ball (Forsythia) deserves wall space, 
because it makes March rich in colour ; a green catkin 
bearing climber is called garrya elliptica ; ordinary gorse 
on a south expanse of brick will be yellow sooner, and 
later, than its brethren in the open. 



270 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Now about ivy. The varieties have been men- 
tioned in the chapter on climbers for house. walls, to 
which the reader can turn. The handsome foliage 
sorts may be patronised moderately, and the more 
delicate coloured-leaf varieties lavishly, while we can 
also reckon beautiful berry trusses among the merits 
of hedera helix. 

The Japan quince(pyrus japonica) begins in January ; 
if the deep crimson, the white, and the rose varieties 
are obtained as well as the scarlet, the month and its 
successor should be indeed splendidly embellished. 

A tree or two standing out in the border may be 
allowed ; too many would cause dangerous shade and 
drip. Prunus pissardii is the maroon-leaved, white- 
blossomed, early spring ornament of suburban road- 
ways, and an almond will not be long behind it in 
budding. 

Under these, by-the-bye, will be a suitable site for 
a bed of Christmas roses, helleborus niger, and its 
varieties. To give the plant the cool conditions that 
it demands during summer it would surely be possible 
to sink some pots of shrubs between it and south sun- 
shine, say each April ? Will any person be surprised 
to learn that there are green, purple, and rose-coloured 
Christmas roses, as well as the pure white and the 
spotted ? 

Again, will anybody smile incredulously at being 
told there are real winter crocuses, quite distinct from 
the popular kinds of our earliest spring beds ? — crocus 
species, all of them, not to be confounded with the 
mistakenly called " autumn crocuses," that are not 
crocuses at all, but meadow saffrons. Here is a 
list: 



THE WINTER CxARDEN 271 

WINTER BLOOMING CROCUSES 

Crocus Biflorus. White, marked with lilac. 

Crocus Imperati. Violet, fawn, and black-purple in 

combination. 
Crocus Ancyrensis. Orange-gold. 
Crocus Sieberi. Lilac-purple on yellow. 

The true autumn crocuses should also be added, as 
some continue late ; there are too many to particularise 
them all, good sorts being : 

AUTUMN BLOOMING CROCUSES 

Crocus Sativus. Violet-purple. 

Crocus Speciosus. Bright blue. 

Crocus Pulchellus. Lavender and white. 

Crocus Longiflorus. Peach mauve, scented. 

Whether in beds or borders beautiful associates 
are snowdrops, the scarlet windflower (anemone 
fulgens), and the Japan quince, which makes a bush, 
or a standard, as readily as a wall or arch covering. 
The giant snowdrop (galanthus Elwesi), the common 
snowdrop (galanthus nivalis), the extra tall single 
(galanthus grandior), and the earliest species (galanthus 
plica t us), should all be present. 

Megasea cordifolia, perhaps the handsomest of early 
February flowers, giving massive spikes of pink bells 
above tropic-suggesting, giant, crimson-tinted leaves, 
is seen at its best when surrounded by variegated rock- 
cress (arabis) and set near masses of the tall winter 
heliotrope (tussilago fragrans), whose quaint, square 
trusses of lavender-lilac intensely-perfumed blossom 
will be also at their harvest season. Silver ivy, up 
a pole, or, better still, a rustic log stood on end, may 



272 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

rise out of yellow winter aconite, between whose 
stars can live the green tufts of blue or pink primroses. 
By-the-bye, the blue hybrid primrose is generally 
earlier by many weeks than the yellow type in gardens, 
and as it is rather delicate it relishes a south aspect, 
against wall, hedge, fence, or shrub belt, even during 
summer. Crocus Susianus, yellow, veined black, gives 
a pretty bit of colour round hart's-tongue ferns, which 
will keep green and glossy. 

Then there are white, blue, and red hepaticas to 
pair off with the spring crocuses, under bushes of rose, 
white, and yellow mezereons (daphne mezereum), and 
a stretch of rockery should be built, in one or more 
places, expressly for the cultivation of the exquisite 
winter irises — iris reticulata, violet and gold, and 
scented like violets, which may be known as the netted 
iris, iris histrio, purple-blue and rose shaded, on a yellow 
ground, iris alata, gold and blue, iris persica, blue, 
purple, and amber, the Bethlehem iris (iris vartani), 
an azure blue dwarf that comes to us from the Holy 
Land. 

A grand perennial, of coarse habit, not to be planted 
too close to daintier growers, is the groundsel (senecio 
pulcher), that will bless late November with its big, 
rose-carmine florescence. Late Michaelmas daisies 
will be out too, the tall crimson sort being most showy, 
and probably the knotweed (polygonum polystachyon), 
will be towered over by plumes of white. Far away 
from rosy groundsel or crimson Michaelmas daisies, 
since its hue would quarrel desperately with them, 
should be groves of the caff re flag (schizostylis coccinea), 
of deep scarlet. Aster vimineus, of minute white 
blossom, aster polyphyllus, white, gold-centred, and 



THE WINTER GARDEN 273 

aster Novse-Angliae pulchellus, a late violet-blue, may 
be the caffre flag's companions. 

Whole beds of white, pink, blue, and purple violets 
can lie under specimen shrubs of golden privet, which 
may keep their leaves, or may lose most and be putting 
out hopeful fresh foliage buds. Plenty of use should 
be made of yellow jasmines, beneath which the star 
phlox, silvery-grey, and with lovely foliage, or spring 
forget-me-nots and mossy saxifrages, or just pinks (for 
their leaf -tufts) will be harmonious. Van Tholl 
tulips, scillas, white and yellow garlics (alliums), 
stately crown imperials, daffodils, to start with the 
small single native species, and end with the heavy- 
headed golden doubles, the mauve relative of the white 
rock-cress, and myriads of aubrietias should be in the 
winter garden. 

Azalea pontica is a very early golden species ; rhodo- 
dendron cilliatum, white in March, rhododendron 
praecox, another dwarf to bloom in the blusterous 
month, but lilac-coloured, and rhododendron Jack- 
sonii, a low-growing early scarlet, should on no account 
be omitted. Wallflowers, of the ordinary kinds, 
and the pale yellow cheiranthus alpinus, cheiranthus 
Marshalli too, orange, only six inches tall, may 
be relied on to do wonders. Then there are two 
heaths (erica carnea, and erica codonoides), the lovely 
little toothed primrose (primula denticulata), violet, 
also its white and mauve varieties, the bigger white, 
hardy, scented primula involucrati, the brilliant rosy 
carmine primula rosea grandiflora, for a damp spot, 
possibly a deep rockery nook, that will flower from 
March onwards, and the April gem, snow-white primula 
nivalis. 

T 



274 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Year by year the gardener should make notes of the 
flowers that she finds braving winter in her neighbours' 
and distant friends' pleasure-grounds, in public parks, 
and nurserymen's land ; then she can add them by 
degrees to her own beds and borders. She will learn 
too that wild plants of the locality are often a guide ; 
the blue speedwell on the hills will suggest that the 
cultivated speedwell (veronica prostrata) will break 
also into winter bloom, and a glance into a florist's 
list will remind her of the Spanish speedwell (veronica 
Allioni) and many more. Plenty of the autumn 
perennials refuse to end their season then, just as 
surely as plenty of spring perennials decline to wait for 
spring. As her mind becomes more and more imbued 
with the importance of discovering methods of beauti- 
fying the cold-weather garden she will perceive a 
thousand chances that had been formerly overlooked : 
the evergreen foliage plants of her herbaceous border 
will acquire new value, since portions can be employed 
where permanent ever-green, ever-gold, ever-silver, 
ever-bronze leaves are desirable mantles for Mother 
Earth ; all berried plants will appeal to her, too, with 
increasing force, all plants also that carry feathery 
seed heads long after flowers are over. 

And what can the final result be but the creation of 
a little winter Eden ? 

Gardening Proverb. — " It never snows for the man 
who won't see it." 



CHAPTER XXV 

VIOLETS, CARNATIONS, AND LILIES-OF-THE-VALLEY 

" Dear violets, you liken to 
The kindest eyes that look on you 
Without a thought disloyal." 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 

THERE are some flowers that stand forward 
before others, appealing for our affection — 
or maybe commanding it, for blossoms have 
the quality of pride, the merit of dignity. They seem 
to say, " You cannot dispense with us. We have been 
treasured in many lands, for long ages ; poets have 
sung about us, philosophers drawn us into their argu- 
ments, preachers chosen us as illustrations of modesty, 
loyalty, and simple delights. A garden in which we 
do not grow cannot be perfect. A gardener who is 
not able to gather us will miss the chance of offering 
purest gifts." And if the blossoms do address us in 
this sense there really is not any contradiction possible ! 
The violet was the national flower of Greece, when 
Greece was yet unspoiled ; Shakespeare declared : 

" The fairest flowers o' the season 
Are our carnations and streaked gillyflowers." 

In country hamlets, in antique times, the lily-of-the- 
valley was always mentioned as the " ladder to heaven," 
and still symbolises " a return of happiness." Keats 
dared to sing : 



276 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN. 

" No flower amid the garden fairer grows 
Than the sweet lily of the lowly vale, 
The queen of flowers." 

Must we not have these three delights, in plenty ? 
The best of it is, too, that anybody may grow them to 
perfection. Violets alone may be well cultivated in a 
number of different ways, but we must limit our care 
to having them out of doors, either in the ground or in 
cold frames. While sweet violets can be pressed into 
the service of both the winter garden and the garden 
of shadow, to have them for gathering, their tastes 
should be humoured, they should not be regarded so 
much as outdoor ornaments. Decorative they will 
always be, and the ingenious gardener is free to invent 
for herself how to make the plant combine the two 
qualities of ornamental and productive. 

The best site for violet beds, or lines of violets, in 
the averagely warm garden, is between tall fruit-trees, 
either vegetable ground not planted with vegetables, 
or the earth of an unturfed orchard. In the scorching 
garden they should be made on the north, or north- 
east side of a hedge. W T hy not of a wall ? Well, 
there is some disagreement generally between violets 
and brick ; the chances are that a devastating plague 
of red spider, or a disease known as red rust, would 
result. Certainly viola odorata has its whims. It 
often flourishes exceptionally against stone steps or 
flint walls. If there is no convenient hedge border, 
one of cold aspect, against a fence, may be used. 

The well-prepared ground may have some more 
sharp sand, leaf mould, and old chopped horse-manure ; 
the too light soil will need an admixture of decayed 
cow-manure and stiff loam. Small violet roots are 



VIOLETS, CARNATIONS 277 

termed " crowns " in the trade, and these crowns 
should be planted a foot apart for a long-lasting bed, 
nine inches apart if space is very scanty, April being 
the correct month for the work. A watering must be 
given at first planting, and newspaper sheets should 
be fixed down to shade the plantation for three or four 
days, if the afternoon sunshine is considerable and the 
fruit trees do not cast much shade. 

Here is a list of double and single violets ; the former 
are less satisfactory in the open ground, but are splen- 
did in frames, or if they can be sometimes covered by 
handlights. 

DOUBLE VIOLETS 

Comte de Brazza. Pure white. 

De Parme. Lavender-blue. Very prolific. 

Lady Hume Campbell. Blue. A late variety. 

Mdlle. Bertha Barron. Indigo blue. 

Marie Louise. Lav ender-and- white. 

Mrs. J. J. Astor. Called the deepest blue double violet. 

Mrs. Arthur. Pale china blue. 

The Tree Violet. Viola arborea. Deep violet. 

Belle de Chatenay. White, flushed with lilac. 

SINGLE VIOLETS 

Mr. Gladstone. Blue, long-stemmed. 

Odoratissima. Blue, extra sweet. 

Perle Rose. Two shades of rose. 

Primavera. A very large blue. 

Princess Beatrice. Deep violet, enormous size. 

Princess of Wales. Violet. Quite as large, and 

sweeter. 
Sulfurea. Creamy yellow. 



278 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

The Czar. Blue, very free bloomer. There is also 

a variety with variegated foliage. 
Victoria Regina. A fine blue. 
Wellsiana. Blue. Constant bloomer. 
White Czar. Snow white. Very free. 
Luxonne. Mauve, long-stemmed. 
La France. Violet. Round-pet ailed. 
Italia. Rare shade of blue. 
Comtesse Edmunde du Tertre. Rich violet. 
Dr. Jameson. Ruby. 
Explorateur Dybowski. Copper-purple. 
California. Deep violet. 

Baron James de Rothschild. Bright blue. Early. 
Askania. Deep blue. 
Alba. The old-fashioned white. 
Admiral Avellan. Grand size, ruby-rose. 

It is a peculiar fact that the red and the yellow 
violets refuse to thrive in some gardens where the others 
grow well, yet where they do flourish they try to over- 
run the ground like weeds. 

The after care of violets consists of watering them 
during dry spells, hoeing and weeding among them, 
the removal of every " runner " that forms, before it 
has grown enough to rob much nourishment from its 
parent, and the application of liquid manures, varying 
these about every twentieth day between May and 
September. 

If the gardener specially wishes to enlarge her stock 
of plants she can allow one runner to form on each, 
pegging the end down into the soil when it has made a 
little tuft of foliage shoots. By September the con- 
necting stems can be cut, and the new violet root left 
to grow on until new beds are made in April. 



VIOLETS, CARNATIONS 279 

Suitable liquid manures can be made with soot, cow, 
or sheep manure, but must be so weak that they are 
only pale-coloured ; also from the following chemical 
recipes. Firstly, § ounce of superphosphate of lime, 
I ounce of sulphate of iron, ^ ounce of sulphate of 
ammonia, to 4 gallons of water. Secondly, 4 ounces 
of guano to 4 gallons of water. 

A well-made violet bed can remain undisturbed for 
three years, except for the removal of runners before 
they root, or of any youngsters that have been allowed 
to attain independent existence. 

Violets for frame culture, which means winter 
blooming, are treated similarly, but the plants are 
lifted in September, and replanted about seven inches 
apart, in a bed made up purposely in a sunny frame. 
The compost used should be simply equal portions 
of loam, fresh turf loam, if possible, and clean leaf 
mould. The gardener cannot be too particular about 
this cleanliness, for if there is mouldy decay at work, 
fungus spores developing, or quantities of wireworm 
and other noxious wrigglers, the violet roots will be 
sure to die off in numbers. The frame, if a deep one, 
may be mostly filled with really decayed manure, and 
a six-inch layer of compost on this is all that is needed ; 
or the space may be made up below by coarse tussocky 
loam mixed with a quarter portion of hop-manure. 
Whatever material is used, under the loam and leaf 
mould mixture, the frame must be filled up to within 
six or seven inches of its glass. Unless the violets, 
when planted, are directly influenced by the sun 
warmth through the glass, which draws them on, 
bids them aspire, awakens all their latent energies, 
there will be a very poor crop of blossom. 



280 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

The " light " or glass lid, must remain on tightly 
for a week after planting, then air must be. gradually 
given until free ventilation is in progress, but there has 
to be adequate protection from frost. 

Authorities all say that if the soil throughout the 
deep frame is thoroughly moist at starting no watering 
will be needed during the winter. As with every 
theory based on an "if-'" there is peril in observing 
the rule too closely. Drying up of the complete sur- 
face six inches will, almost infallibly, bring about 
serious trouble. The gardener can thrust a small 
stick down into the soil and ascertain if there is mois- 
ture below, just as she would test, by a knife blade, a 
cake in process of baking. The old plants can form an 
outdoor bed again next April, will throw runners that 
can be rooted for a fresh stock, or they may be first 
divided themselves into " crowns." Frame violets 
should always be strong young specimens. 

The next scented favourite is the carnation. Science 
has wrought a kind of revolution in its culture, for 
though connoisseurs still yearn after the grand old 
border " selfs," picotees, and bizarres, modern taste 
is all for the new " perpetual blooming " race. Un- 
doubtedly there is comfort in seeing buds forming, 
blossoms opening, for months in succession, and the 
later offered varieties compete favourably in shape, 
and occasionally in perfume, with our old friends of the 
family. Still, who would wish to give up a perfect 
flower on account of its yielding bloom only for a few 
weeks ? The value of the harvest is all the greater in 
proportion to its shortness of duration. Perpetual 
carnations used to be all " Americans/' with loose 
petals and fringed edges. Florists have introduced 



VIOLETS, CARNATIONS 281 

varieties of improved shape, at prices ranging between 
one shilling and five shillings each, barring the very 
newest prodigies ! 

The method of culture is easy enough. Pot plants 
are put out in April, and potted up again, to be housed, 
when they have done flowering, or just before the first 
frosts are to be expected. Many firms who supply 
herbaceous perennials are loyal to the old love, and do 
not sell these beautiful adventuresses who are mono- 
polising so much attention. 

The border carnation (dianthus carophyllus) needs 
a rich but sandy soil. It will grow in most garden 
ground, but to please it the open, sunny border should 
be made up with three parts of old turf loam and half 
a part each of decayed cow-manure and river or clean 
road sand. " Old turf loam " means from a stack 
of upturned turves that have rotted together for six 
months or so. A foot apart is the right distance for 
them to be planted, in either October or March ; 
failing that, November or April. At the end of April, 
or in May, a mulch of manure is generally laid over the 
ground, but some growers now use fertilised hop- 
manure, mixed with baked leaf mould, or with vege- 
table ashes, and they state that wire worm will feed on 
the decayed hop material and spare the carnations. 
Certainly it acts anywhere as a fine trap for them. 
Flower stems have to be accorded a neat stick each 
as they arise. No woman will require telling that, to 
gain the prettiest border show, she should use sticks 
painted the grey-green of the foliage ; otherwise the 
ground will seem to bristle with deal spikes. Flower 
buds are thinned to three on one shoot when giant 
blooms are wanted. 



282 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

If it is feared that the carnations are of kinds that 
split their calyces, these should each be tied round when 
petals peep through first, a thread of green worsted 
being the best stuff for the purpose ; unless, indeed, the 
gardener buys the miniature indiarubber rings sold 
by horticultural providers. 

Liquid manures may be given once a week during 
the budding and blossoming months. Hoeing should 
be very frequent, to loosen the top soil. 

The old clove carnation, in crimson or white, is so 
hardy that it often flourishes in heavy soil, without 
attention. Carnations are seldom propagated from 
cuttings — outdoor carnations, that is to say ; if they 
are, the tips, or " pipings," three or four inches long, 
are inserted in very sandy compost in pots placed in 
cold frames, or under handlights, in June or July. The 
general way to propagate is by layering in July or 
August. This is the pegging down of a nice semi- 
woody stemmed shoot, from four to seven inches long, 
after making a longitudinal quarter-inch slit in the 
underneath of its stem, into a little hillock of sand 
and compost. The task is somewhat similar to rooting 
the violet's runners, but slightly more involved and 
risky. The pegged down shoots often need shielding 
from fiercest sunheat, and overhead sprinklings morn- 
ing and evening, until their fresh colour and growth 
prove that they have begun to root. The connecting 
stems should be cut in September or October. The 
new plants may remain where they are until the 
following March, unless it is believed that bitter 
winter may destroy them. In the coldest localities 
they can be planted in frames in October. 

The lily-of-the-valley, which botanists do not 



VIOLETS, CARNATIONS 283 

know as a lily, but as convallaria majalis, costs about 
five shillings for fifty " crowns " of fair flowering size, 
or clumps can be bought at about a shilling each. 

The site should be open ground under trees, or in the 
shade cast by walls, hedges, or fences, though a planta- 
tion in the corner nook between south and east walls 
will ensure an earliest crop. Ordinary well-prepared 
ground will suffice. Let the crowns go in three inches 
apart, and be matched as to size, keeping little 'uns and 
big 'uns together in groups or rows. The points must 
only be planted just below the surface. September and 
October are the most suitable months. Each February 
a nice mulch of old manure, made fine, and freely 
sprinkled with slaked lime, should be given to the beds. 
This will suffice as nourishment for the first year : in 
the second season liquid manures become advisable. 
Having once made a satisfactory lily-of-the-valley 
border the gardener can feel serene, for it need not be 
lifted and remade until the fourth year. 

Convallaria majalis can be grown from seeds sown, 
shallowly, out of doors in March, but surely nobody 
can wish to wait for the slow development of plants 
thus raised, when propagation by division of clumps 
into crowns is so rapid ? 

Violets can be seed-raised too, by the very patient. 
Pans of sandy compost must be used, in July or August, 
as soon as seeds are ripe, and these pans may have to 
occupy cold frames for two years before more than a 
stray seedling appears. 

Raising carnations is a delightful pursuit when there 
is plenty of land to devote to trial plots ; so many 
seedlings will be single, or very inferior bloomers, that 
to tend them for months in the ornamental beds and 



284 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

borders is a mistake, because a source of annoying 
disappointment. Yet some charming varieties may 
be gained ; seedling plants are infinitely stronger and 
more lavish bloomers than those that spring from 
cuttings of named varieties, and there is always the 
chance that some new sort may be worth putting on 
the market. Florists are naturally chary of taking 
a fancy to a new carnation, however, because it is 
such a remarkably rare thing for a flower to prove 
at once perfect in form and of a novel colour. 

Seed should be placed only one-sixteenth of an inch 
deep, in equal parts of loam, leaf mould, and sand, in 
pans in a cold frame, in April, May, or June. Seedlings 
can be potted, or pricked off, to spend the first winter 
under glass, or be planted out in September or October, 
in warm gardens, and mulched around with sharp 
cinders. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Don't dig a deep hole if 
you've nought but a weed to put in it." 



CHAPTER XXVI 



THE WILDERNESS GARDEN 



" The flower that opens in peace, the bird that sings its song, the 
star that follows its course, the man who follows his conscience, are 
in accord with the source of being and repose in it. Peace envelops 
them, and, by them, is communicated to him who knows how to 
understand their significance." — Charles Wagner. 

THE quotation at the head of this chapter 
advocates peace, and it was chosen because 
no garden is more restful than the one that 
is moderately wild. 

A dictionary blunders sadly when, after giving the 
usual description of a " wilderness/' it adds the defini- 
tion, " a part of a garden left to grow waste." Nothing 
could be more untrue : the ordinary garden, abandoned 
to Nature, would become a ruined specimen of man's 
artificial craft ; a real wilderness garden is one in 
which artifice has been from the outset avoided, and 
even art — the essential tool — has been hidden away 
with the utmost discretion. Lawns, beds, borders, 
pergolas, and rockeries of the usual kind run to seed 
and thistles, choked by weeds, would not please any 
eye, nor achieve the slightest resemblance to a beautiful 
" wild garden." 

The difficulty in discussing what may be done is the 
overwhelming multitude of possibilities. 

Let us suppose that new ground is to be laid out, 



286 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

or an extra half-acre, acre, or more, tacked on to an 
existing garden ; that this ground is rugged, portion 
of an up-and-down meadow, or a common, or perhaps 
just some of the scooped-out-here, and piled-up-there 
" building land " that is found even by the roads of 
country and seaside towns, the happy hunting-grounds 
of children and dogs, all unkempt, flattened by feet, 
excavated by folk in search of " mould," littered by 
old tins, smashed crockery, and stones. 

The first necessity is to enclose the place, and it is a 
great pity to do this too uniformly. A portion of the 
boundary line might be a hedge of gorse, another of 
hawthorn, a third of mingled sweetbriar and black- 
thorn, a fifth of common laurel varied by clumps of 
willow, and fronted here and there by bracken-fern, 
which is quite willing to find its way up, even through 
evergreens, to give a waving splendour of autumn gold, 
russet, and red far above them. Then a length of 
solid paling, made with staves of old grey wood, set 
so as to be uneven at the top, would serve as a support 
for the ivies without whose inimitable grace no wilder- 
ness is complete ; this fence could pass, abruptly, 
into a rude espalier, fashioned of rather large pine logs, 
and used to hold up honeysuckles. A stretch of wall, 
built with flints and rubble mostly, and some cheap, 
crumbly white bricks, if uneven of summit too, and 
left with hollow spaces, would be fit to plant with wall- 
flowers, snapdragons, houseleeks, stonecrops, London 
pride and other saxifrages, Kenilworth ivy, thrift, 
sandworts, ferns, and red and white valerian. If a 
pretty field came up to the garden pleasure would be 
gained by having part of the boundary of simple, 
wide-meshed wire netting, so as not to obstruct the 



THE WILDERNESS GARDEN 287 

view ; a honeysuckle, bryony, or wild rose at one end, 
or both ends, could be encouraged to run along the top 
wire strengthening the netting, so making a species of 
frame to the tall grasses and wildflowers outside, and 
the foxglove, cornflower, red poppy, or ox-eye daisy 
groups that should be irregularly set just inside. 

Trees should break boundary lines in two or three 
places, not giant trees that will overshadow the whole 
too much in course of time, but elders, crabs, mountain 
ashes, acacias, perhaps, wild cherry, silver birch, larch, 
holly, or sweet bay. Another idea is to enclose the 
garden in places by giant walls of old brick, that give 
place to gaps and lower stretches of wall, as when a 
ruinous state has overtaken brickwork. 

It is an error to plant blackberries, or fruiting 
brambles of any kind, near the boundary ; boys will 
find out the harvest, and not be deterred by any obstacle 
from levying toll on it. Usually barbed wire has to be 
wound in and out of hedges, or trespassers are likely 
to break down the young growth. Sometimes it is 
necessary to enclose a garden entirely in a. high wire- 
netting fence, a foot, or more, away from hedges, 
trees, etc. ; if cattle graze on the environing land this 
is essential. Luckily netting does not seriously spoil 
the scene. The only other alternative is to grow 
nothing that is not prickly for the boundary lines, 
but that sadly restricts choice, and hollies and gorse 
are very slow-growing. 

The more rugged the earth is the better ; fields of 
different beautiful thistles, hawkweeds, poppies, and 
scabiouses can be made on the crests of gravel pits, or 
chalky gorges ; brambles and single roses may over- 
hang them. A lovely effect is to put up a tall larch 



288 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

pole on one " beetling crag," grow hops to climb it, 
and let some hang down as a green drapery over the 
edge. The bottom of a sandy excavation will not want 
covering with vegetation, for a log seat or two there 
will be valuable, but a few bracken roots, a patch or 
so of heather, and a stately mullein in some corner may 
be introduced. 

A copse is a semi-circle, or nearly complete circle of 
bushes and trees, enclosing greensward, maybe towered 
over by a beech, elm, or lime ; anyhow, it is an excel- 
lent plan to make a copse about any existing tall, 
deciduous tree, dot the grass with primroses, bluebells, 
and wood-anemones, use privet, hawthorn, black- 
thorn, broom, gorse, elder, hazel, hornbeam, scarlet 
dogwood, Portugal laurel, all or any, for the shrubs, 
let them be run over by climbing white bindweed, 
traveller's joy, dog-roses, honeysuckle, or bryony. 

As for paths, there are sure to be trodden ones 
already on the ground ; others may be marked off, 
cleared of turf, and beaten hard. It looks better to 
strew them with coarse sand, roadside grit, than red 
gravel ; or smashed brick rubble will do. Cinders are 
out of place in the wilderness. Other walks may be 
of the rough turf, cropped by tethered goats, or 
occasionally gone over by scythe, machine, or shears ; 
grassy slopes will look especially well, whether leading 
up or down, and many plants can be introduced to 
fringe the sides, wood sorrels (oxalises), harebells 
(campanula rotundifolia), cinquefoils (single poten- 
tillas), turfing daisies, white and red clover, ground 
ivy, celandines, primroses, wild strawberries, speed- 
wells, lady's slipper, cuckoopints, blue and white 
cupidone (catanache), the lesser St. John's worts, 



THE WILDERNESS GARDEN 289 

periwinkles, cowslips, orchis, dwarf scabiouses (scabiosa 
graminifolia, scabiosa parnassiaefolia), self-heal (prun- 
ella incisa rubra), poppies, pimpernels (anagallis), and 
sweet woodruff. 

Specimen trees, suitable for planting, either in turf 
or areas of cleared ground, are those advised earlier 
for breaking the hedge levels, also sycamores, the ser- 
vice tree, wild plum, quince, and walnut, weeping 
birches, chestnuts, maples, golden or black poplars, 
Scotch firs, a ten-foot specimen of which costs but half 
a crown, spruce firs, and planes. 

This may be called the absolute wilderness. It is 
within every gardener's power to make a grand wilder- 
ness with garden trees, shrubs, and plants, as well as 
with those that are to be met with wild in Great 
Britain. Ruggedness of land will still afford the best 
opportunities for securing irregular effects, the wild, 
luxurious, untamed look that is so eminently soothing 
to the spirits of all lovers of freedom. 

Thickets can be built of the Japanese roses, of giant 
sea-hollies, immense ferns, cultivated rhubarb, sea- 
kale, and lettuces, white broom, rhododendrons, 
American currants, guelder roses, mock oranges, and 
lilacs. Hedges, of composite attractions, may con- 
tain barberries, spray-bushes, veronicas, kalmias, hardy 
fuchsias where these thrive, escallonias, double and 
single red, rose, and white hawthorns, golden, silver, 
and red dogwoods, and the pink tamarisks. 

Ah, how tenderly all the ups and downs of ground 
should be studied and made use of — maybe exagger- 
ated ! There should be cavernous nooks almost 
under earth, and rustic seats on hill-tops, nearly hidden 
retreats beneath trees, visible arbours, vine, ivy, and 

u 



290 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

traveller's joy embowered huts. Among the woodland 
scenery we ought to come upon nut glades, avenues 
of the bracken fern again, nestled around by heather 
and bluebells ; banks may bound them, all snowy 
with perennial candytuft (iberis sempervirens), all 
silver and carmine through a covering of Jove's cam- 
pion (lychnis flos-Jovis), or azure with forget-me-nots 
that seem to flow down to meet water in a little ditch 
beside mosses, rushes, daffodils, and blue bugle. 

Fields of great beauty can be sown, as well as planted. 
A slight forking, refining, perhaps watering of the site 
in March or April, a scattering of mixed seeds, the use 
of a fine rake to draw a meagre covering over, and, hey 
presto, the deed is done ! Showers and sunshine will 
call forth the crops. 

What shall we choose for the wilderness of florists' 
varieties of hardy flowers ? A selection may be made 
among the following, seed of which is in no case costly : 

Pheasant's Eye. Adonis autumnalis, carmine-scarlet. 

2 feet. 
Red or white Hawkweed. Boerkhausia rubra and 

alba, i foot. 
Pot Marigolds. Calendulas officinalis and superba, 

orange, i foot. 
Calliopsis. C. tinctoria yellow and crimson. C. tinctoria 

nigra speciosa, terra-cotta crimson. 2 feet. 
Cornflowers . Cyanus minor, in deep or pale blue, white, 

rose, or maroon purple. 2J feet. 
Corn Marigolds. Chrysanthemum segetum grandi- 

florum, yellow. 1 foot. 
Clarkia. Clarkia elegans rosea, pink, alba, white ; or 

Clarkia pulchella, carmine. 2 feet. 



THE WILDERNESS GARDEN 291 

Collins Toadflax. Collinsia tinctoria purpurea, ma- 
genta. i\ feet. 
Erysimum. Erysimum Peroffskianum, orange, ij 

feet. 
Eucharidium. Eucharidium grandiflorum, magenta. 

i£ feet. 
Phlox-wort. Gilia achillaefolia major, cobalt blue. 

2 feet. 
Chalk Plant. Gypsophila elegans, white or rosy, ij 

feet. 
Sunflowers. Miniature sunflowers make a lovely field 

among oats and other grasses. 
Red Flax. Linum rubrum, or the rose variety, ij 

feet. 
Common Flax. Linum usitatissimum, pale blue. 2 

feet. 
Love-in-a-Mist. Nigella damascena, deep blue, 1 
foot ; Nigella hispanica, pale blue, ij feet. 
Larkspurs. Blue, white, rose, violet, or cerise. 3 feet. 

As for poppies, they are all suitable, but the method 
for reaping most delight from them is to send to some 
florist of renown for a packet of seed mixed specially 
for broadcast sowing. This may either be sown alone, 
or mingled with seed of mixed annual ornamental 
grasses. Language falters before the attempt to 
describe the undulating, richly-hued, pale-tinted, 
mysterious, bewitching, nodding field that will adorn 
the summer landscape. Little poppies will nestle at 
the feet of monster poppies ; Shirleys and the double 
ranunculus flowered poppies, of incredible hues, will 
toss their heads together in company with the grassy 
tassels ; solid phalanxes of giant opium poppies 



292 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

will demonstrate what luscious large leaves some 
members of the family can produce ; apricot-hued 
poppies will give a hint of gold, as of ripe corn, and 
there will be actually blue, if a packet of seed of the 
new Shirley named " Celeste " is added to the supply 
of less rare sorts. 

Fields are not the sole wonders that the gardener may 
sow. She will find that an expanse of foliage plants 
has a meritorious manner of imitating that leaf paint- 
ing which Mother Nature brings into all her chefs 
d'ceuvres, the greens to be grateful to the sight always 
as moderating brilliances, the russets, ochres, and 
crimsons to bring autumn glories ere their time. 
Probably the finest hardy annual for giving ruby 
foliage, that finally reaches purple, is atriplex hortensis 
atrosanguinea, which grows to a height of four feet, 
yet scarcely an amateur gardener seems to know the 
plant. To have it at its most robust the seed should 
be sown under glass in early March, the seedlings be 
potted off singly, kept in a cold greenhouse or frames, 
until they can be safely hardened off by being stood 
outside a few days previous to putting out. Two 
shifts, the second being into larger pots when the first 
small ones are root-filled, are quite worth giving to this 
noble atriplex. Still, it will arise if merely sown out of 
doors. 

Another grand hardy annual to sow in the same way 
is the common hemp, a member of the nettle tribe, but 
without a sting (cannabis gigantea), enormous leaved, 
and eight feet tall. For shady ground the black 
balsam should be prepared, by March -or February 
sowing under glass ; this is a four-foot grower, not 
tender like the familiar balsams, and, though excellent 



THE WILDERNESS GARDEN 293 

for its habit and leafage alone, is worth cultivating 
well, so that its darkest-purple flowers may be had early. 
It is called impatiens glanduligera in catalogues, and 
a packet of seed costs threepence. 

A feathery, grass-green, tall foliage annual, of pyra- 
mid shape, is artemesia annua, so hardy and quick- 
growing that it should be sown in March or April where 
required ; later in the season it turns into a golden 
sugar-loaf shrub, for every branch, to its tip, is clothed 
in yellow fluffy florescence. The handsome beets that 
are employed for bedding are so easy to raise under 
glass that they may well be planted out in May to form 
coverts beneath flowering shrubs such as mock-oranges, 
guelder-roses, white broom, and meadow-sweets. 

Among grasses lurk some most attractive monsters. 
We all admire the Japanese maize (zea japonica 
variegata) ,and ought to patronise the taller zea j aponica 
gigantea quadricolor, whose leaves are striped with 
cream, rose, and yellow, but among perennials there 
are equally fine subjects, notably the pink as well as 
the white pampas, eulalia japonica too, that sends its 
flowery panicles to a prodigious height above its 
striped blades, the silvery five-foot andropogon argen- 
teus, and the extra graceful melica altissima. Any 
of these, among broad-leaved plants, and around red- 
hot pokers, or eremuri, hollyhocks, Russian sunflowers, 
or tall coneflowers, suggest the rich ground-covering 
of some tropic jungle. 

A feature should be made of climbing convolvuluses 
in the wilderness garden ; they may mount fences, 
envelop hedges or trees, or be given poles roughly 
latticed between by string. The variegated Japanese 
hops and canary creeper are other rampant climbers. 



294 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Stake or trunk-supported bushes of everlasting 
peas can be recommended. Lathyrus latifolius can 
be had now in white, pale pink, magenta-rose, and 
crimson ; other climbing species of real beauty are 
lathyrus pubescens, pale blue, lathyrus pisiformis, 
bright purple, and the peculiar showy hardy annual 
Tangier pea (lathyrus tingitanus), which can be culti- 
vated as easily as the sweet pea. 

A wilderness style of planting can be adopted in 
parts of any garden that is too large for the owner to 
deal with in other fashions, for the cost of sowing big 
plots is really suited to all purses. Poppies, nastur- 
tiums, and mignonette can get on famously without 
any manure in the soil, so can sunflowers, gross feeders 
though they are when better nourished. Then plants 
for covering immense spaces rapidly, because able to 
be put out as far apart as a yard, and yet to be con- 
fidently looked to for a magnificent show, include 
annual chrysanthemums coronarium and carinatum, 
annual lupins (lupinus Hartwegii, blue and white, 
lupinus hybridus albococcineus, cerise and white, 
roseus, pink, luteus, yellow, all two and a half feet), 
the pink and the white mallow worts (lavatera trimes- 
tris grandiflora) , tall satin flowers (godetias), African 
marigolds, rocket larkspurs, the new annual holly- 
hocks that bloom freely the first year from seed, 
imperial sweet sultans, and the medium tall sunflowers, 
golden nigger, deep gold, diadem, lemon, and orion, of 
twisted, or " cactus/' petals. Then there are cheap 
plants of regal aspect — coloured and white tobaccos, 
or nicotianas, the perennial sunflower, Miss Mellish, 
lavender Michaelmas daisies, mixed tall snapdragons, 
and Canterbury bells. These, at a yard or more 



THE WILDERNESS GARDEN 295 

apart, will be an efficient furnishing. Single dahlias 
too are sold each May for twenty-five a shilling, and 
can stand five feet each from each. Canterbury bells, 
sweet rockets, honesty, foxgloves, and the majestic 
chimney campanula are all biennials ; they can be 
raised in outdoor seed-beds, or boxes under glass, in 
May, June, or July, and all but the last are certain to 
survive winter if put out in their blossoming quarters 
in October. The bell-flower, except in southern 
gardens, should be frame-sheltered until March. 

To place an iron and wood seat or a painted pagoda 
summer-house in the real wilderness garden would be 
an impropriety of which no woman of taste could be 
guilty. Log seats are the happiest thought, and can 
be made comfortable by having the upper layer of 
bark removed and the under wood flattened, or partly 
hollowed out. If desired, the bark can be nailed on 
again to the levelled or scooped-out surface. 

Every attempt should be made to gain luxuriant 
growth, whether from trees, shrubs, plants, or climbers ; 
a certain degree of neglect can be practised, so that 
branches entwine, self-sown subjects usurp positions 
to which they have no title, paths be invaded by mosses, 
ferns, and trailing sprays, brambles weave unplanned 
thickets, wild roses and hops, traveller's joy and con- 
volvuluses insist on making arches ; but the care of 
the zealous gardener will be in requisition to restrain 
and feed, support and deprive of seed-vessels. No, 
a wilderness is emphatically not " a garden allowed to 
run to waste/' although a dictionary has dared to say so! 

Gardening Proverb. — " You can't have too much of a 
variety of good things." 



CHAPTER XXVII 

PANSIES AND PRIMULAS 

" A great point in villa-gardening is to carry out well one sole idea. 
Great variety there cannot be, nor contrast, in the moderate area of 
ground which most villas possess ; but there may be high finish, 
perfect good taste, choice selection, and manifestation of science and 
skill. To attain this happy end there must be unity of design ; 
without it, except by the merest accident, there will be merely 
a jumbling hotch-potch, or chance-medley salmagundi of gardening, 
whatever amount of cash and labour may be bestowed on horti- 
cultural incongruities. But with unity of design, and a leading idea 
consistently carried out in all its details, failure is scarcely possible." 
— Eugene Sebastian Delamer. 

THE title for this chapter would have been more 
correctly written as "Violas and Primulas/ ' 
or " Pansies and Primroses/' yet the poly- 
glot union of English and Latin expresses the meaning 
better. Try though we may to have simple names for 
flowers, circumstances become too strong for us, and 
we have to sink back on scientific words, just for 
distinction's sake. Our great-grandfathers were con- 
tent to speak of " heartsease," then " pansy " was 
generally adopted, from the French " pensees." Of 
course Spencer called the flower " pawnee/' and 
Shakespeare made Ophelia say : 

" There's pansies, that's for thoughts," 

but the common name was anciently " heartsease." 
To the Greeks, far back in the centuries, the flower was 
known as phlox, signifying a flame ; the early Christians 



PANSIES AND PRIMULAS 297 

made it " Trinity flower," in allusion to its triple lower 
petals ; the Italians christened it the winged or the 
butterfly violet. Old Saxon pet names for it were 
"love-in-idleness/' " jump-up-and-kiss-me," " call-me- 
to-you," and " three-faces-under-one-hood/ ' 

Nowadays we have a terribly muddled way of 
speaking of " pansies and violas," viola being just the 
title of a whole genus, by which violets are equally 
meant, as well as several other plant species. The 
consequence is that persons are constantly asking what 
is the difference between a viola and a pansy, and as 
constantly receiving answers that leave them puzzled. 
It is folly to insist upon the pansy's having three 
blotches, because those are small in very many of the 
classic show varieties, and degenerate into mere hair- 
lines in others. Also " violas," by which is meant 
bedding pansies, sometimes have blotches too. 

An ancient writer, before the days of the foolish 
distinction between pansies and " bedding pansies," 
wrote thus : 

" Characters of a Fine Heartsease. 

" The chief object to be desired is symmetry of the 
flower. The petals should be large, broad, and flat, 
lying upon each other so as to form a circle, and 
prevent anything like angles or intersections of this 
circular outline : a character which excludes the old 
purple and the old white. . . . The petals should be 
as nearly of a size as possible, the two top ones being 
longest, but so covered with the two side ones as not 
to appear disproportioned. The top petals should not 
wave, nor turn back. The bottom petal should be 
broad and two-lobed, flat, and not curving inwards 



298 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Above an inch in breadth is a good size. The colours 
should be clear, brilliant, and not changing. . .. . The 
eye should not be too large, and it is accounted finest 
when the pencilling is so arranged as to form a dark, 
angular spot." 

Giant pansies to-day are much wider of lowest 
petal than " one inch," but they have deteriorated as 
to shape ; the petals are seldom anything like of one 
size, they twist and curl, flap or turn backwards, if not 
inwards. 

The woman gardener who wishes to see perfect 
specimens, or to start with some excellent stock to 
propagate from, would do well to buy six English show 
and six named fancy pansies ; more, of course, if she 
cares to. They are priced at from three shillings a 
dozen to twelve shillings for newer varieties, and really 
the old are the more reliable. Show pansies have been 
ousted in popularity by the larger " fancies," yet are 
of classic outline and exceeding charm. There are 
white, yellow, blue, and purple " selfs," as well as 
edged varieties, and the blotches are never very 
covering to the petals. A magnificent dozen of fancy 
pansies would be : 

Col. M. R. G. Buchanan. Violet blotches, narrowly 
edged white ; upper petals violet and purple, 
laced with white. 

Mrs. Macfadyen. Chocolate blotches, belted with 
yellow and rose ; upper petals yellow and 
rose. 

Lord Roberts. Prune blotches, top petals straw, 
banded broadly with carmine, and cream- 
edged. 



PANSIES AND PRIMULAS 299 

Mrs. M. M'Callum. Violet blotches, edged straw ; top 

petals straw. 
Mrs. William Sinclair. Blue violet blotches, edged 

with yellow ; top petals sulphur yellow, also 

blotched with blue. 
James McNab. Black blotches, edged yellow ; upper 

petals yellow. 
Jenny Morris. Blue blotches, margins and top petals 

light red-crimson. 
Effie R. Wilson. Immense violet blotches, edged 

white ; upper petals violet. 
Mrs. Campbell. A bright yellow self, with claret 

blotches. 
Mrs. Yorke. Red-violet blotches, margins and top 

petals white, spotted and flushed with 

magenta. 
Madge Montgomery. Claret blotches, cream edged ; 

top petals similar. 
Marquis of Graham. Large white self, with black 

blotches. 

Most of the above have been granted many certifi- 
cates of merit. 

Really the best name for the viola is tufted pansy, 
as this bedding strain spreads in tufts, instead of sending 
out long, thick stems like the giant pansy. 

Next the gardener should invest in a dozen named 
varieties of this most useful class. Where thousands 
are admirable it is risky to select only twelve, but the 
following are of noted merit. 

Mrs. H. Pearce. White self, with yellow eye, but no 
blotch or hair-lines at all, so described as 
" rayless." 



300 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Mrs. C. B. Douglas. Orange, slightly rayed. 

Ithuriel. Azure-mauve. 

Kingcup. Ray less yellow. 

Florizel. Blue-lilac. 

Blue Duchess. Pale blue, 

William Niel. Pale rose. 

Royal Scott. Deep blue. 

Sylvia. Rayless cream. 

White Empress. Rayless white. 

Duchess of Fife. Cream-yellow, with narrow blue 

edge. 
Mauve Queen. Mauve self. 

These are all of good bedding habit, and will not 
straggle. 

Then miniature violas, or violettas, are delightful 
little strangers to welcome to any garden ; if propa- 
gated from freely a supply sufficient for an edging, or a 
carpet for a lawn bed, can be obtained within a year 
or two. There are not many varieties in the market. 
Violetta, the type plant, is white, so is Blanche ; 
Picotee has a narrow blue-mauve edging to snowy 
petals, and Gold Crest interprets its own name. 

All these four types, show and fancy pansies, tufted 
pansies, and violettas, can be raised from seed. If 
from a collection of named varieties there will be many 
fine formed flowers, others of less good shape but 
attractive colour ; unluckily the qualities have a way 
of being separated, seldom united. Tufted pansies 
are seldom satisfactory for bedding out with when 
seed-grown, because the majority will prove tall 
growers instead of dwarf ; yet among the items of that 
majority are nearly sure to be discovered the biggest 



PANSIES AND PRIMULAS 301 

blooms and the fairest shades. It stands to reason 
that when skilled florists have bred a plant in and out 
for year after year, striving to obtain a blend of merits, 
and, having achieved this, have laboured more years 
to work up the stock, the flowers are better entitled 
to approval than are chance seedlings. Now and then 
a prize variety appears unsolicited, but it is one out of 
thousands of good, fairly good, mediocre, and worthless 
seedlings. For filling large beds among tall perennials, 
making broad borders, pretty edging lines, giving warm 
colour to the semi-shady rockeries, clothing banksides, 
furnishing shrubbery foregrounds and glades, seedlings 
will be charming, very robust, extra floriferous. 

Our old author has some good advice to give on seed 
sowing : 

" I have frequently had occasion to find that 
heartsease seed will not germinate if it be kept for more 
than twelve months, at least when it is sown without 
bottom heat. It will therefore be advisable to sow it 
as soon as may be convenient after it is ripe, if this is 
not too late in the season, or if there is no command 
of artificial heat. 

" The seed may be sown from April till September 
in beds of rich, light soil, in a shady border not under 
the drip of trees, or, what is preferable, in pans or boxes 
filled with similar soil. 

" The seeds should be sown as evenly as possible, to 
prevent the plants from being overcrowded, in which 
case they are liable to damp off. . . . When sown in 
pans or boxes it will be useful to place these, if con- 
venient, in a gentle heat till the seeds germinate, as in 
this way valuable sorts may be procured, which would 
not come up at all without heat." 



302 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Seed-beds made up under a west wall or fence are 
capital for raising any sort of pansy ; drills across open, 
sunny ground answer well, the bottoms being left 
three inches lower than the ground level, and bits of 
glass being laid along the lines to cover the small 
trench. The use of some carbolic powder will keep 
away slugs. Seedlings should be transplanted when 
about an inch high ; they stand a poor chance if set 
in broiling sunshine, unless they were very early raised 
— in February or March under glass — so the practice 
is often adopted of putting them four inches apart 
along the back of a north border. 

Pansies are quickly increased by root division, which 
may be done at any time of year, in winter in cold 
frames, in spring and autumn anywhere out of doors, 
in hot summer in a cool, shady, damp spot. Without 
lifting plants it is often easy, the ground having been 
watered, to pull up young shoots, with rootlets 
attached, from the core of the overgrown roots. Tufted 
pansies can have side portions detached thus, as they 
root all round. 

When a fine pansy is to be propagated from, and 
there are no young shoots, a mulch of old cow-manure, 
and attention to watering, will probably cause some to 
form ; meanwhile the long, coarse, straggling, flowered 
or flowering shoots may be pegged down into a scooped 
hollow beneath them, after lining it well with leaf 
mould and sand. Sometimes the tip of the shoot, 
divested of flower-buds, will root ; at other times, if 
young growth promises along the stem, it is wiser to 
nip off the enfeebled end shoot, and wait for the baby 
ones to grow, which they will speedily do in the cavity 
and sandy compost. As many as three layered shoots 



PANSIES AND PRIMULAS 303 

may be turned into healthy young pansies on the 
same stem, from which they have, of course, to be cut 
free as soon as well rooted. 

Young shoots from the plants or stems, detached 
without any roots, about three or four joints long, cut 
off close to a joint, can usually be safely rooted, or 
" struck," in very sandy compost, in a bed or pans, 
pots, or boxes, in a quite shady frame. The woman 
gardener should realise once more that, if she has no 
frame at her command, all she requires is a deep deal 
case from the grocer's, and some sheets of rough glass 
to cover the top. 

Tufted pansies are at home in sun or shade ; large 
pansies prefer semi-shade. The named varieties often 
fail in full sun-heat, while seed-raised plants flourish 
grandly even in southern county south aspect borders. 
Again we may note a difference — tufted pansies do 
not need a lot of feeding, about one-third the amount 
that the big race requires, and for the giants some extra 
feeding once a week, from March to September, is not 
excessive. The manures may be those advised in a 
former chapter for violets. Watering must be done 
in times of drought. Planting of bought pansies is best 
performed in October, that they may have time to 
develop grand strength before the spring season ; 
March and April planting is just a tolerable makeshift. 
The stiffer and richer the soil for the large species, the 
more will they thrive. But it need not be reckoned 
that they are only spring, and occasionally autumn, 
bloomers ; beds ought to be gay all the floral months, 
and the secrets for having them so are two — firstly, 
never allow a seed-pod to form, secondly, restrict the 
roots to five flowering shoots, and keep them so 



304 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

restricted. Only three flowering shoots are allowed 
when pansies are cultivated for exhibition. 

Most noted seedsmen have their own strains of seed 
of fancy pansies ; a few have also of the show pansies 
that have lapsed in popularity because not as immense. 
In addition there are noted kinds, such as : 

Bugnot's Giant. Large and beautifully blotched. 
Giant Five-spotted. Large blotch on each of the five 

petals. 
Masterpiece. With frilled edges. 
Trimardeau. Immense, many coloured, but floppy of 

petal. 
Victoria Giant. Rich red, black blotched. 
Bath's Giant. Enormous and robust, but flower stems 

short. 
Bath's Empress. Not as large, but of wonderful 

colours, and with long stems. Admirable for 

garden decoration. 
New Giant Eros. Velvet-brown, edged yellow. 
New Giant Raphael. Blue- violet and white. 
Giant Parisian. Said to be largest of all. 
Peacock. Not large, but original, having a blend of 

rich metallic hues. 
Rainbow. All pale tints. 
Fairy Queen. The nearest to sky-blue. 
Cardinal. Carmine shades, usually marked with white. 
Queen of Sheba. The finest purple-black. 
Emperor William. Varies from seed, but mostly royal, 

or China, blue. 
Black King. Actually the black of soot. 
Canary-bird. Yellow, sepia blotched. 
Giant Fire-Dragon. Scarlet-crimson and amber. 



PANSIES AND PRIMULAS 305 

Madame Perret. All shades of old rose, red, crimson, 

and maroon. 
Mauve Queen. Mauve, crimson blotched. 
Rose Queen. Rose-lilac. 

Solfaterre. Primrose, with small blue blotches. 
Snow Queen. Pure white. 

Tufted pansies, if not in mixture, may be sown in 
separate colours ; seed is not generally offered from 
named varieties by title, as seedlings are almost sure 
not to be true. 

" A great point in villa gardening is to carry out well 
one sole idea," wrote Mr. Delamer, more than forty 
years ago. The owner of any small or medium-sized 
garden would make a name for herself if she specialised 
in pansies, or in " primulas/' 

Now primula is the name of the whole race — of 
families that come to us from utterly antagonistic 
habitats and many foreign lands, that differ as much 
in needs as in appearance. Yellow and hybrid-coloured 
primroses, polyanthuses, oxlips, cowslips, may be sown 
any time from February to August, in moist, sandy, 
light soil, in shaded cold frames, or in March and April, 
or September, in similar soil, in shady seed-beds or 
borders. 

Alpine auriculas need the frame treatment, or may 
be raised, as was the old custom, on a gentle hot-bed 
in February, with a valuable hastening of results. 

The exquisite double primroses are aristocrats 
indeed, and there are red and other coloured named 
singles that cost a shilling or two a plant. Semi- 
shady rockery mounds for these are lovely at lawn 
edges. Then there are uncommon primula species that 

x 



3o6 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

may be grown out of doors in semi-shade, wherever the 
other primroses are known to thrive. These are mostly 
difficult to raise from seed, and the shady frame, failing 
a cool greenhouse, is the only possible place for the 
pans. The amateur gardener who is brave, and loves 
experimenting, will no doubt like to try her luck, but 
time and trouble are saved by purchasing a plant of 
each species and propagating these. There will 
remain a certainty of local fame, because very few 
flower-cultivators realise how splendid are some of the 
unfamiliar primulas, how bewitchingly dainty the 
others, that will live in beds and borders, if those are 
well drained, or in rockery nooks. 

HARDY PRIMULAS 

Bird's Eye Primrose, Primula farinosa. Rosy lilac. 

Likes shade, y inches. 
Fern-leaved Bird's-eye Primrose. Primula farinosa 

frondosa. Silver, and red purple. 6 inches. 
Helvetian Primrose. Primula helvetica alba. White. 

Resembles an auricula, but is small. Sandy 

soil needed. 
Munroi's Primrose. Primula involucrati. White ; 

sweet-scented, hardy. A tall species. 
Japanese Primrose. Primula japonica. Crimson flow- 
ers in whorls. Requires moist ground, i to 3 

feet. 
Primula Lutea. Also needs damp soil. Yellow. 1} 

feet tall. 
Himalayan Primrose. Primula rosea grandiflora. 

Damp soil. Rosy carmine trusses in spring 

and summer. 9 inches. 
Himalayan Cowslip. Primula sikkimensis. Yellow 



PANSIES AND PRIMULAS 307 

pendant blossoms in clusters. Moist soil. 

Hardy, ij feet. 
Primula Spectabilis. Rosettes of foliage, sprays of 

rosy-purple. 4 inches. 
Primula Viscosa. Bright rose-and- white. 4 inches. 
Primula Calycina. Dark rosettes of foliage, heads of 

magenta-purple. 5 inches. 
Bear's-ear Primrose. Rose. Beautiful fern-like leaves. 

9 inches. 
Toothed Primrose. Primula denticulata. Needs moist 

soil ; a deep cleft in a rockery base is best. 

Lilac. 1 foot. 
Siebold's Primrose. Very showy, with broad foliage 

and fine flowers, crimson, lilac, white, pink, 

etc. Hardy ; grows best in semi-shade and 

soil rich and light, not too damp. 9 inches. 
Primula Bulleyana. A gorgeous buff, flushed with 

orange-scarlet. Will flourish in conditions 

the same as for Siebold's primrose. 1 foot 

to i| feet. 

To make a garden famous for its primulas will be 
to render it a perennial delight, so if the cost is more 
than would be needed for stocking it with bedding 
plants for a year or two, the expenditure will not spell 
extravagance. Most of the display can be made with 
coloured primroses and polyanthuses from seed, not 
forgetting the blue strains, hardy auriculas too, and the 
priceless wilding of our woods. There should be whole 
banks covered by that, some of plain soil held up by 
the primrose leaves alone, others turfed and dotted 
over, a few fronted by a rustic fencing with mosses, 
ferns, and the dear yellow flowers peeping through the 
wide spaces. 



3 o8 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Many of the primula species are at their best in June. 
Later than that, before the autumn flowers yielded by 
polyanthuses, hybrid primroses, and cowslips that have 
been divided after the spring show, the gardener may 
put out greenhouse primulas, for summer till early 
winter blossom, anywhere not too sunny, since primula 
obconica, primula Kewensis, yellow, primula Forbesi, 
rose, and the fairy primrose (primula malacoides), will 
thrive in almost all counties. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Take care of the soil, and the 
roots will take care of themselves/' 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

PRUNINGS, CLIPPINGS, AND PROPAGATION 

" The truly efficient labourer will not crowd his day with work, 
but will saunter to his task surrounded by a wide halo of ease and 
leisure, and then do but what he loves best. He is anxious only 
about the fruitful kernels of time. . . . Let a man take time enough 
for the most trivial deed, though it be but the paring of his nails. 
The buds swell imperceptibly, without hurry or confusion, as if the 
short spring days were an eternity. . . . Some hours seem not to be 
occasion for any deed, but for resolves to draw breath in. We 
do not directly go about the execution of the purpose that thrills 
us, but shut our doors behind us and ramble with prepared mind, 
as if the half were already done. Our resolution is taking root or 
hold on the earth then, as seeds first send a shoot downwards which 
is fed by their own albumen, ere they send one upward to the light." 
— Thoreau. 

A GARDEN is slow of making, although much 
effect may be wrought in its initial season. 
Only by degrees will plants, trees, and shrubs 
become finest in individual specimens or sufficient in 
quantity. The woman who regards her work with the 
emotionalism of a poet will rejoice that she is, in some 
ways, toiling for the happiness of those who will come 
after her ; for every loyal artist is member of a 
Christian brotherhood, and cannot grudge toil by 
which the future must benefit. Fair lawns, groves, 
woodlands, shrubberies, and hedges are not destined 
for the sole pleasure of any one human being, family, 
or century. 

Many gardening processes have enormous results ; 
planting an acorn or a fir-cone, for example — which 



3 io EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

reflection brings us at once to the consideration of how 
long-lasting vegetable giants are propagated. Sticking 
a branch of a laurel, or willow, into the ground may 
create a striking feature in a garden landscape for 
countless years to follow. Cutting down a noble line 
of yew means the destruction of something that 
decades will be needed to restore, which is an argu- 
ment for profound meditation before the use of the 
knife, axe, or saw. 

It would be impossible to give, in this volume, an 
exhaustive list of the methods of pruning and propa- 
gating garden ornaments, but some hints have been 
gathered together to serve as guide for the culture of 
those most likely to be within the care of the lady 
horticulturist for home — little beauties, as well as 
large. 

Instructions 

Heather. Prune straggling shoots in March or April. 
Cuttings of young shoots can be inserted, half 
their depth, in sand and peat, under hand- 
lights, in semi-shade, in September. 

Sea Holly. Eryngiums. Seed, in frames, in April. 
Root division in October. 

Escallonias. Prune straggling shoots only in April. 
Cuttings of half-ripe wood in sandy compost, 
in frames in August or September.. 

Blue Gum. Eucalyptus. No pruning needed. Sow 
seeds in spring, in temperature of 65 degrees. 

Euonymus. Prune or clip in October or April. Insert 
cuttings of former year's growth, 3 to 6 inches 
long, in cold frame, in September, or try 
boughs a foot long, stripped to the tip, 



PRUNINGS, CLIPPINGS 311 

inserted two-thirds of their length in sandy 
borders in semi-shade, in October. 

Golden Ball. Forsythia. Prune into shape after 
blossom is over. Layer side shoots into 
ground, in sand-lined hollows, in October. 
Cuttings, 4 inches, in sand and cocoa-nut- 
fibre refuse, kept damp, in pots under glass, 
in October. 

Outdoor Tree Fuchsias. Prune hard in early Novem- 
ber. Cuttings in shady border in April. 
For bedding fuchsias, treat as geraniums. 

Broom. Prune into shape after blossoming. Sow in 
cold frame, or outdoors, in sandy soil in April. 
Layer in October. 

Deutzia. Prune after flowering. Cuttings, 3 to 4 
inches long, of young shoots, in frames in July. 
Cuttings 1 foot long inserted 6 inches deep, 
in semi-shady border in November. 

Sweet Williams. Seed in boxes under glass in March, 
or outdoor sunny beds in April or May. 
Cuttings in sand and leaf mould, in green- 
house of 60 degrees in April, or in frames in 
September. 

Bush Honeysuckle. Weigela. Prune after flowering. 
Cuttings of firm wood, 6 inches long, inserted 
half their depth, in cool border in October. 

Outdoor Hydrangeas. Hydrangea hortensis. Prune 
straggling shoots in early March, and cut out 
dead wood. Hydrangea paniculata : prune 
the former year's shoots back to one inch of 
the base, on boughs, in early March. Cuttings 
of 3-inch shoots, in thumb pots in cold frame 
in August. Division of old roots in March, 



312 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Holly. Prune or clip in April or September. Sow 
berries in October that were gathered the 
previous winter and have been stored in dry 
sand ; sow in semi-shade, or drills in sun- 
shine. Do not remove seedlings until two 
years' growth has been made. 

Jasmine. Cut away shoots directly flowers on them 
have faded. Cuttings, 6 inches long, in west 
borders in September. Layer basal shoots in 
August. 

Laburnum. Prune after flowering. Sow seeds out 
of doors in April. 

Everlasting Peas. Cut down in October. Divide 
roots in March. Sow seeds in temperature 
of about 60 degrees in March, or out of doors 
in April. 

Laurels. Prune in April, to preserve shape, or clip. 
Cuttings, new wood, in lengths of 1 to 2 feet, 
taken with a heel of the old wood, stripped 
half, or more, their length, and inserted that 
depth in sandy borders of shade or semi-shade, 
in August, September, or October, make the 
quickest rooting cuttings. Suckers can often 
be detached from the roots. 

Privet. Prune evergreens in April, deciduous sorts 
(among which golden privet ranks, though it 
retains much foliage always in warm gardens) 
in October. Clip hedges in July. Cuttings, 
7 inches to 1 foot, in shady border in Septem- 
ber. 

Honeysuckle. Deciduous, prune previous year's shoots 
to within 3 inches of their base in February. 
Evergreens, prune only into shape, after 



PRUNINGS, CLIPPINGS 313 

flowering. Layer shoots in August. Cut- 
tings, 8 inches long, in sand and leaf mould, 
or cocoanut-fibre refuse and grit, in cold 
frame bed in October. 

Box Thorn, or Tea Tree. Lycium. Tip vigorous 
shoots in February ; cut out dead or feeble 
branches in October. Prune close hedges 
into neat shape in July. Cuttings, 8 inches, 
inserted two-thirds, in shade in September. 
Suckers can usually be detached ready 
rooted. 

Outdoor Myrtles. Prune into shape in March. 
Cuttings, 8 inches long, inserted singly in 6- 
inch pots of leaf mould and coarse silver 
sand, nearly to the base of pots ; pots to 
stand in water-filled saucers, from June 
onwards, under glass. 

Pseonies. Propagate herbaceous sorts by division of 
roots in March. 

Oriental Poppies. Old roots can be divided in March. 

Passion Flower. Prune in February, cutting weak 
shoots freely, strong ones slightly. Layer 
in summer. 

Bedding Geraniums. Lift plants before frost reaches 
them, pot off singly in small pots, or closely 
together in large pots or boxes, removing half 
foliage, and store anywhere under cover in 
temperature of 45 degrees, unless required for 
greenhouse decoration. Insert cuttings in 
cold frame bed in August ; keep from all 
frost, and pot off in March, or pot cuttings in 
August for housing in moderately warm 



314 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

greenhouse. Sow in sandy loam, in tempera- 
ture about 60 degrees, in February or March. 

Pentstemon. Prune old plants back in April. Sow 
as geraniums. Old roots can be divided in 
April. 

Mock Orange. Shorten shoots that have bloomed. 
Layers or 9-inch cuttings in cold frame sandy 
beds in May. 

Poplar Hedges. Prune in November or February. 

Ornamental Prunus. Shorten straggling boughs after 
blossoming. Thin out branches that over- 
crowd. 

Myrobald Plum. Hedges should be trimmed in July. 

Rhododendron. Hardy species. Prune in April. Re- 
move seed pods while quite small. Thin out 
flower buds. Layer in March or September. 

American Currant. Prune into shape after flowering. 
8-inch cuttings out of doors anywhere, in 
October. Detach suckers, ready rooted, in 
February. 

Elders. Prune into shape in November. Pinch out 
tips of shoots of gold and silver elders in July, 
to check too wild growth and preserve the 
colours. Cuttings, 6 to 8 inches, anywhere, 
kept damp. 

Solanum Jasminoides. Climber. Prune only strag- 
gling shoots, in February. 

Shrubby Meadowsweets. Spiraeas of tall sorts. Prune 
back a few inches after flowering. 

Lilac. Prune directly after flowering, only the shoots 
that have blossomed, to within 4 inches 
of their base. Easily propagated by root 
suckers. 



PRUNINGS, CLIPPINGS 315 

Yew. Prune or clip shrubs and hedges in April or 
September. 

Thuya, or Arbor- vitae. Prune or clip in April or 
September. 

Guelder Rose. Prune lightly after flowering. Layer 
shoots in September. 

Laurustinus. Prune into shape in April. Cuttings of 
half-ripened wood, in sandy compost, in pots, 
in cold frame, in September. 

Wistaria. Keep main branches uncut, but shorten 
shoots springing from branches to 1 inch in 
January. Layer young shoots into the 
ground, or into sandy loam in pots tied up 
among the boughs. 

Yucca. Propagate by division in March, or suckers 
in April. 

Horse Chestnut. Prune unshapely boughs in Novem- 
ber. Sow 3 inches deep, outdoors in March. 

Lemon-scented Verbena. Prune shoots to within an 
inch of base in February. Cuttings, pulled off 
stem, not cut, 4 inches long, in pots of sand 
and leaf mould, in warm greenhouse in March. 

Lavender. Prune into shape in March. Pull off 
6 to 8-inch young branches from woody 
stems ; insert half their depth in shade of 
parent bush in September or April. 

Almond. Make straggly growth tidy ; no pruning 
required. Sow stones in border in October, 
6 inches deep. 

Southernwood. No pruning needed. Insert cuttings 
as for lavender, but any time from July to 
October. 

Auricula. Propagate by seed {see chapter on pansies 



316 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

and primulas), or by offsets removed in 
February. 

Hardy Azaleas. Prune straggling shoots after flower- 
ing. 

Orange Ball Tree. Buddleia. Remove dead wood 
and shorten wild shoots only, in April. 

Box Shrubs. Clip in April. 

Box Edging. Plant dwarf box (buxus sufruticosa), as 
sold for the purpose, each rooted portion 
nearly touching its neighbour, buried so that 
the tips are but just 2 inches above soil, in 
March or October. Clip in April or August. 
One nursery yard of box divides to make 3 
yards of box edging. 

Flowering Cherries. Slightly shorten vigorous branches ; 
cut out dead or feeble ones in January or 
February. 

Allspice. Chimonanthus fragrans. Climber. Shorten 
all flowered shoots in February to one inch 
of their base, except when any are required 
to extend width or height of the plant. 
Layer in September. 

Hawthorn (May). Prune into shape, if necessary, in 
November. 

Firethorn. Crataegus pyracantha. Prune in February, 
removing shoots that have carried berries. 
Sow berries as for the holly. 

Mezereum. Daphne mezereum. One seed in each 
berry. Sow in autumn, as soon as ripe, out 
of doors. 

Pampas Grass. Cut away dead foliage at any time 
that spoils the appearance of the clump. Sow 
seeds in glass-covered pan of sandy compost, 



PRUNINGS, CLIPPINGS 317 

in greenhouse or propagator, temperature 
about 60 degrees, in March or April. 

Witch Hazel. Hamamelis. Prune into shape in 
February. Layer in October. 

Ivy. See chapter on climbers. Cuttings of firm 
nature, 8 inches long, round edges of pots of 
loam and road -grit, in cold frame in October 
for delicate sorts, in made drill of similar 
compost, where plants are wanted, for hardy 
kinds, in September or October. 

Oak. Prune deciduous kinds in December, when 
necessary, evergreens in April. Sow acorns 
in March that were gathered in autumn and 
stored through winter in dry sand. Sow 2 
inches deep, anywhere. 

Herbaceous phlox. Can be propagated by cuttings, 
4 inches, of shoots from the base, in cold 
frames in August, or greenhouse in March or 
April. Seeds in temperature of 55 degrees 
in spring, or when ripe in autumn. May take 
years to germinate. Division of plants is best. 

Pinks. Seed sown in pans of sandy soil, barely 
covered, in cold frame in April or May. 
Cuttings or pipings (tips of shoots) inserted 
deeply in sand and leaf mould, kept moist, 
under handlight on semi-shady border, or in 
cold frame in June. 

Pine. The pine, or any of the ordinary coned firs, 
may be sown half an inch deep, in moist 
sandy borders, in April. 

Gardening Proverb. — " An acorn's a small fact, till it 
grows." 



CHAPTER XXIX 

DISEASES, INSECT PESTS, AND PERILS 

" Insects of mysterious birth 
Sudden struck my wondering sight, 
Doubtless brought by moisture forth, 
Hid in knots of spittle white : 
Backs of leaves the burden bear 
Where the sunbeam cannot stray ; 
( Wood Seers ' called, that wet declare, 
So the knowing shepherds say." 

Clare. 

A GARDEN may be laid out by a genius, 
financed by a millionaire, and yet be a 
failure. When this happens no doubt insects 
are to blame. They are often the culprits who wreak 
ruin in more modest pleasure-grounds, though the 
real onus of responsibility rests on the persons who 
might exterminate pests, and do not do so. 

The sickness of the century is the complaining 
fever ; no doubt it was prevalent earlier, but the 
franker conversation becomes, the louder and more 
constant are the personal grumbles, and the less does 
anybody try to preserve dignity. Now, in country 
places, it is scarcely possible to sit through a tea or a 
dinner without hearing amateur gardeners nearly 
quarrelling as to who has had the worst misfortune 
through slugs, snails, wire worm, and leather-jacket 
grubs. All the while, though seeking a species of 
reputation, the talkers are giving themselves shocking 



DISEASES, INSECT PESTS, AND PERILS 319 

characters as horticulturists. Insects do not descend 
upon us in the powerful style of the plagues of Egypt ; 
if we permit them to swarm in our beds and borders, 
burrow in our lawns, cover our trees, we are guilty of 
idleness. In the course of the competitive complaints 
some voice is sure to put in mournfully, " And remedies 
are so expensive ! " The new insecticides are, when 
they have to be used over a lot of ground, but long 
before they were invented zealous gardeners contrived 
to grapple with and defeat the hosts of enemies who are 
always lurking to come down upon land that is ill- 
protected. The defenders who slumber and sleep have 
mostly their own lethargy to thank for the evils. 

Take the question of how to rid a garden of slugs and 
snails. The driving them away from one border into 
another is not of much service ; snails can sit happily 
among the shoots at the base of plants while the costly 
soil insecticides are applied lavishly all around, and 
slugs, nestling together among the stones of the rockery 
edging, can keep smiling all the while. No, the real 
use of soil fumigants is to free the earth that is to be 
sown or planted — the emptied bed or border — in which 
case a rock edging should be raised and the ground 
beneath similarly treated : they are not of much 
benefit to beds or borders where plants afford shelter 
to the vermin. 

All empty ground that can lie fallow six months 
should be dressed with fresh gas-lime, at the rate of one 
and a quarter ounces to a space a yard square, during 
winter or earliest spring ; if more is used no crop will 
flourish there for about a year ; all plants or shrubs 
put into the poisoned earth sooner will succumb. Old 
gas-lime will not destroy vegetation, except of the 



320 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

most tender sorts, but neither will it destroy insects. 
Not only will slugs be killed by the fresh gas-lime, the 
harder-natured, or, rather, better protected snails be 
driven away where they can be easily seen and caught, 
but all the wireworms, grubs, etc., click-beetles too, 
will be got rid of. The gas-lime should be spread on, 
then lightly forked in, to a depth of one or two feet. 
When slugs are doing damage among plants of any 
sort there are various methods for exterminating them. 
Experience, year after year, goes to prove that killing 
by hand is at once easiest, quickest, most sure, and 
least expensive. A woman will not like a slug-murder- 
ing expedition, but she must rejoice in ridding Mother 
Earth of her enemies, and can take pride in acting 
promptly and mercifully. How should the deeds of 
slaughter be performed ? Many advisers say that to 
lift a slug on a trowel's tip and drop him into a bowl of 
strong salt and water gives him a painless death. But 
the brine must be very strong. Other non-professional 
gardeners have been known to make use of an ento- 
mologist's " killing-bottle." Scientists know that to 
guillotine a slug is kinder still. A smart downward 
cut, with a really sharp table-knife, severing the 
head just below the hooded portion known as the 
" shield," is, no doubt, too swift to be felt at all — or 
if it could be felt the preliminary blow would stun 
before the cut followed — and it leaves no risk of the 
creature's lingering in agony. 

Slugs and snails must come out to feed during spring, 
summer, and autumn ; they begin soon after sundown, 
or rather before on wet, dull days. An early eventide, 
after a thunderstorm, will bring extraordinary pro- 
cessions of them across the rain-darkened soil. It 



DISEASES, INSECT PESTS, AND PERILS 321 

almost seems that they retire after one meal, and return 
later for another ; certainly there are hours, when 
gloaming has ended, in which it is difficult to discover 
hordes even by artificial light, whereas a lantern search 
over the same ground, between nine and ten o'clock, 
will usually reveal hundreds. By dint of visiting the 
plots and borders every evening for a week or two the 
gardener will actually rid them of the foe. Each night 
there will be fewer on average, allowing for the clim- 
ateric influences ; at last the sight of a specimen of any 
size will be a rarity. All the tiny slugs should be dealt 
with, those that are dotted on the surfaces of leaves 
and upon the reverses, that cling to stout or slender 
stalks, nestle within pansies, cover pink shoots, lie in 
the folds of daffodils ; unless they are removed in 
spring they will have spoilt a vast amount of petals 
before autumn. There is another point to be careful 
about, the searching for slugs upon the lawn that 
bounds the beds and borders, for incredible numbers 
will be detected making their way to the tasty morsels 
of leaf and bloom that they know are near. 

Carbolic powder scattered freely on soil will probably 
kill, eventually, such slugs as live in the ground just 
there, unless they recover after having trailed slowly 
through it and been washed by rains or dew. It is an 
admirable preventive, however, rather than a sure 
cure. Watering soil with carbolic solution is a remedy 
against various worms ; it will not keep wandering 
slug and snail marauders away for long. Slacked lime, 
put around special plants or patches of seedlings, will 
preserve them, until it becomes too slacked — which 
may be the effect of the next thunder-shower. Soot is 
a deterrent to slugs from any distance, but those in the 

Y 



322 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

border can survive it at first, though they disappear 
eventually from ground dressed with it once a week, or 
with the slacked lime. 

Traps for slugs, and slug-killers in powder form, are 
sold and can be recommended. Home-made traps 
consist of cabbage leaves smeared with fat, lettuce 
leaves, or heaps of bran, put on the soil : these should 
be examined several times during evening and early 
night, and in the grey of the morning, if possible. 
Snails can be best trapped by inverted flower-pots, 
smeared inside with strong-smelling fat, and raised an 
inch from the ground, on bits of wood or flat stones, or 
by crumpled-up sheets of brown paper, similarly made 
enticing and laid on the earth among leaves of large 
plants, or else covered by a thrown-down tree branch. 

Wireworms, straw-gold in colour, are the grubs of 
the " click-beetle," a very active little shiny black 
person who should be caught and demolished whenever 
seen hurrying away from upturned soil. The wireworm 
continues to grow for years before becoming a beetle 
itself, so the depredations that it can effect during its 
career are terrible. As has been said, the modern 
fumigants and insecticides will clear land of this pest, 
but are costly for big gardens. Pieces of rape-cake, 
buried an inch below the surface soil, are the most 
efficient traps, and it is believed that wireworms so 
overeat themselves with this luxury that they die of 
gormandising. Many gardeners use slices of raw 
turnips, carrots, and potatoes, as traps. Carbolic 
powder, frequently pricked into the ground for a 
depth of two inches, can be advised. 

Snake millipedes, slow moving insects, and one of 
the rapid centmillipedes, a creature only the thickness 



DISEASES, INSECT PESTS, AND PERILS 323 

of a steel hat-pin, feed voraciously on roots and bulbs. 
They may be trapped by cabbage leaves, or will 
congregate under slates laid down. The leather- 
jacket grubs, that become crane-Ays, popularly known 
as daddy long-legs, can be trapped like the wireworms, 
and soil that is much treated with liquid manures made 
with guano, or nitrate of soda, becomes distasteful to 
them. Every crane-fly to be seen on a lawn by evening 
should be killed, and war should also be waged on the 
cockchafer, whose grub burrows deep at the roots of 
plants and can only be found by excavating. 

Ants occasionally do damage in the sandy soil of 
carnation beds, by tunnelling below plants and 
" layers " ; in seed-beds and all sown ground they 
are most injurious, because they disturb the root-hold 
of baby seedlings, and their mounds look untidy upon 
gravel walks or turf. Carbolic powder will send them 
to other quarters. 

The aphides, or green-fly, are seldom dreaded as 
they should be. They are usually difficult to see, in 
any quantity, until June, but they are somewhere, and 
begin to breed in April. As soon as they attack the 
rose shoots and buds they quickly deprive these of 
sap, consequently of all vigour. Many years ago a 
scientist reckoned that one greenfly will give origin, in 
one season, to 25,065,093,750,000,000,000 ! To syringe 
off the insects with only water is labour in vain ; a 
strong solution of one of the many nicotine liquid 
insecticides should be used, or else strong " tobacco 
tea." The aphis-brush is the handiest tool for cleaning 
them off rose sprays ; this little double brush, between 
whose bristles the aphides are caught up, should be 
dipped into the liquid every few minutes. 



324 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

Flowers and shoots that are thought too tender to 
brush or syringe may be dipped quickly, or else be 
fumigated by burning a strip of tobacco-paper under 
them (holding a small box above meanwhile), or be 
dusted over by tobacco powder. The rose grub, which 
pierces buds, must be searched for almost daily, and 
crushed, but the more prudent gardener has, ere then, 
looked for the patches of eggs on the backs of leaves, and 
burnt those by the dozen. Some of the egg groups may 
be those of the saw-fly, the grub of which scallops the 
foliage. 

Leaf -mining caterpillars make those often observable 
zig-zag, map-like lines upon leaves that ruin their 
health as well as appearance. These leaves, also those 
that are affected by the diseases of blight and red 
rust, must be plucked off, and invariably burnt. The 
boughs of " blighted " rose trees should be dusted with 
flowers of sulphur. 

Spraying with a solution of quassia chips, or of soft 
soap, is excellent for keeping grubs, thrips, red spider, 
and other foes, the earwig even, off plants ; it also 
discourages the frog-hopper, or cuckoo-spit — the wood 
seer of the shepherd's warning — which must be pinched 
dead in its white frothy covering whenever detected. 
Earwigs should be trapped in hollow stalks, reeds, and 
lengths of piping. An admirable way to clear a dahlia 
or hollyhock is to hang a sheet of crumpled, beer, 
sugar, and rum-spread brown paper up in it after dark, 
visit this later and drop it into a basin of soft soap and 
water. The earwigs become stupefied first, so cannot 
fly, helter-skelter, directly the paper is handled. 

Toads in a garden are of good service, but there is 
always the unpleasant risk of driving fork or spade 



DISEASES, INSECT PESTS, AND PERILS 325 

through the scarcely visible creatures, or of stepping 
upon them as they crawl over the walks and lawn at 
night. Sparrows tweak off a few crocus or primrose 
blooms, but birds may generally be called excellent 
under-gardeners. 

Naturally it is wiser to prevent insect pests than to 
remedy them. Not a scrap of dead vegetable stuff, 
other than a supply of leaves for leaf mould, should be 
allowed to lie about anywhere ; dead and scattered 
blossoms should be swept; or picked up, pruned-off 
branches be instantly borne away. The vegetable 
rubbish fire will consume all insects, eggs, and disease 
germs that would otherwise do harm. 

Many persons are convinced that they benefit the 
soil by digging all rotting material, grass-clippings, 
even cabbage stumps, into it. The principle is sound, 
the practice is not. Let there be a trench, far from 
flowers, toss the debris into this, adding sprinklings of 
unslacked lime now and then, always throwing earth 
on the top, then, in course of months, the bottom soil 
of this, the decomposed matter mingled with the earth 
foundation, will undoubtedly be full of plant nutriment. 
But the decaying process must not go on, causing mould 
and mildew, near tree, shrub, or planOn the orna- 
mental or the nursery parts of the garden. There is, 
even then, the danger that microbes and " eggs " will 
be eventually carried back to the neighbourhood of the 
flowers. It is safer to burn all rubbish, and use the 
precious ashes. 

Woodlice are best trapped in inverted pots filled 
partly with hay. Eel-worms are minute wretches, the 
great foes of the carnation grower, since they pierce 
through roots or stems, either above or below the soil, 



326 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

and cause those plants or shoots to yellow and shrivel. 
They can be potato-trapped, however. 

The truth is that enemies are not dreadfully 
numerous in any but neglected and weedy soil ; the 
constant pricking over of the surface by the spud, hoe, 
hand-fork, or knife, is too much for the crawlers and 
runners that like to inhabit untended earth. Some- 
times a travelling pest will arrive, such as the earwig, 
or the caterpillars left behind by moths and butterflies ; 
but, on the whole, the devoted flower-tender, after a 
year's struggle with a newly-entered garden, should 
find herself fairly at peace. 

Gardening Proverb. — " 111 breeds fast." 



CHAPTER XXX 

OUR FRONT GARDENS 

" By the side of the garden path grows a perfect little hedge of 
lavender. . . . Among the flowers here are beautiful dark-petalled 
wallflowers, sweet Williams, sweetbriar, and pansies. In spring the 
yellow crocus lifts its head from among the grass of the green in front 
of the house (as the snowdrops did also), and here and there a 
daffodil. These I think never look so lovely as when rising from the 
greensward." — Richard Jefferies. 

A FINE book should have a preface, an opera 
an overture, and a home a front garden. 
Immediately the mind grasps the sense of the 
first, the ear is struck by the invitation of the second, 
the eye is ravished by the charm of the third, all morbid 
gloom is banished ; the interested person sets self 
aside (which is the secret of happiness), and prepares 
to admire something impersonal. Yes, a front plot 
to a house can achieve marvels. Though its supreme 
raison d'etre is the offering of a welcome it also softens 
the maybe savage spirit of the approaching guest or 
returning member of the household ; it gives strangers 
many a sly hint as to the dispositions of the occupants, 
of those permanent dispositions, at least, that express 
character ; it divides the little private kingdom from 
the world. An untended front garden is a cross- 
grained, unkind enemy of all men and women. 

Why is there less originality in the approach to 
homes than in the grounds, frequently less favourable, 



328 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

that hide behind them ? Maybe because we all shrink 
from not following fashion. There are exceptions to 
this rule, but those are mostly only in the degrees with 
which we run the same way as our neighbours. Yet 
original gardening ought to be so beautiful that 
we could not reap anything but renown from 
it ! 

How were front gardens contrived many years ago ? 
Well, we have recollections of stately outer hedges of 
clipped evergreens, lawns ornamented by more such 
models of a most laborious form of art, beds in which 
weeping roses, or great aloes and yuccas, stood as 
centre pieces. Statuary sometimes peeped from closely- 
trimmed arbours of laurel, box, and yew, with quite 
ghostly effect on moonlit nights ; the steps were often 
guarded by couchant lions or greyhounds. That was 
undoubtedly a most artificial style, yet it gave evidence 
of loving care. Old farmhouse gardens usually showed 
a large grassy forecourt, probably semi-circular, with 
pyramid firs upon its margins, a raised bed in the 
centre, for the best bulbous and bedding plants, to 
match those in stone urns by the steps ; hardy 
perennials and simple annuals were not considered 
sufficiently distinguished for this spot. 

Ancient cottage gardens were the scenes for a 
glorious and heterogeneous mass of flowers, no kind of 
plant being rejected. The best roses, then quite costly, 
were kept company by humble marigolds and hen-and- 
chicken daisies, prize dahlias, splendidly marked or 
" feathered " tulips, among carpets of periwinkle and 
stonecrop. Everlasting peas stood, in their rather 
clumsy tangles, by elegant white and orange lilies ; 
bushes of lavender, southernwood, and marjoram half 



OUR FRONT GARDENS 329 

hid violets, and flaunting rows of zinnias were sure to 
be visible, against a background of sunflowers. 

It may indeed be asked why we do not plant any of 
our front gardens now upon this catholic principle. 
The advantages are manifold, since there is certain to 
be as nearly constant a floral display as may be out of 
doors ; the season that proves disastrous to one class 
of plant will be stimulating to another, the fading of one 
sort of beauty will but leave more room for the revealing 
of different attractions. The passer-by must stand 
long, craning his neck over the hedge, before he can 
appreciate even a tenth part of the colour, the forms, 
or the perfume. 

Shirley Hibberd, the famous writer, has offered some 
suggestions. " Most town residences have front plots, 
and these, if well kept, add very much to the neatness, 
cheerfulness, and indeed respectability of a house. 
Just as we judge of a man by his dress and general 
bearing, so may we judge of him by the appearance of 
his home. A scrubby pair of neglected chrysanthe- 
mums trailing over a sour and ragged grass-plot, or a 
sooty shrubbery of untrimmed, worm-eaten, and 
flowerless lilac trees, do as much to disgrace a house 
and its occupant as a string of pewter pots dangling 
from the garden railings, and half a dozen broken 
windows. A front plot, being smaller, requires, of 
course, less labour than a garden, but, if possible, more 
taste. Lay out your plot in the simplest manner 
possible, and do not suffer your neighbour to laugh at 
an endless variety of parterres of all shapes and sizes, 
edged with oyster shells, and filled up with plants that 
would disgrace a common. One central bed, and a 
continuous border, are usually all you have room for, 



330 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

or, at least, three (always prefer odd numbers) beds of 
equal sizes, and in these you may keep up a show of 
annuals and herbaceous perennials. The centre of 
each bed should have a handsome flowering shrub ; 
and near the house one or two laurels and a holly will 
serve as a screen against dust, and ensure privacy for 
your windows. A very small plot is best laid down 
with grass and clean gravel, without flowers at all ; 
in the centre a variegated holly, box tree, or laurel may 
be planted, and all the labour required is to keep the 
grass closely shaven, or the gravel neatly swept. 
Here the object must be to produce a neat appearance, 
and to avoid all attempts at bewildering outlines, 
massive shrubbery, or thin sprinklings of innumerable 
colours." 

We may not be disposed to follow these recom- 
mendations precisely, or we may, for there is always 
liberty for individual taste within certain limits, such 
rules of refinement as this famous author-horticulturist 
always taught : at any rate his words set us thinking, 
and out of thoughts spring perfected notions. He 
errs, probably, by the narrowness of his view. Front 
gardens, though of most modest dimensions, may be 
as various in character as the blossoms known, to 
botanists. 

Some attempts have been made, by Figures 81, 82, 
and 83, to show how a typical semi-detached villa 
front plot can be treated. Yet the designs given are 
but some out of millions that might just as well have 
been drawn. 

Fig. 80 describes the plot as it is generally laid out, 
though in many cases the valuable narrow border on 
the left of the gate, against the stone dividing wall, is 



OUR FRONT GARDENS 



331 



missing, and the opposite bit of border is little more 
than a streak. The design Fig. 81 makes a bold 



UJ 

Z 


V- 



r\ 



r 
o 

ui 



LU 
O 


CD 


























Z5 



BORDER 



a: 
ai 

d 

a: 





a: 

o 



CO 



8OR0ER 




Fig. 80. The usual Front Garden. 

plunge, for it tries to break most established records ! 

A grassy garden is no more trouble to maintain 

properly than is the garden in which some grass is 



332 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

varied by gravel ; indeed there are fewer edges to clip, 
the look of the turf is soothing, the green of it the 




Fig. 81. The Front Garden of Grass. 

loveliest foil to flower colours, and the width to which 
it spreads makes space seem larger than it actually is. 
A line of pillar roses between the house and " next 



OUR FRONT GARDENS 333 

door " will do wonders to screen the home, without 
having any of the drawbacks that arches across a path 
of approach must possess. The group of black dots, 
opposite the line of pillars, might mark sites for 
perennial larkspurs, the golden-rayed lily of Japan, tiny 
conifers, tree fuchsias, or merely tobacco plants, with 
the turf coming close up to their stems. If the deep 
blue perennial larkspur were chosen the clematis on a 
pillar near should be white. This support ought to be 
one of triple poles, either bamboos, which can be 
bought twelve-feet high, or birch or larch trunks, just 
latticed between by string, to help the tendrils to get a 
quick hold, and the plant to grow straight, not droop 
in a tangle. Beds are of irregular shapes, comfortingly 
easy to cut, therefore. The rhododendrons and 
heather should be grouped to hide all soil, the latter 
joining on to the turf. Quite a novel feature is the 
clothing the house walls only in many different varieties 
of ivy, the exquisite variegated species being most 
numerous, the more robust sorts only at the ends, to 
afford a rapid covering. Instead of the customary 
border by the house a row of robust bush roses is set 
in tiny round beds cut out of the turf and carpeted, if 
at all, with the horned violet (viola cornuta) that does 
no harm to rose roots. The almond trees should rise 
from an undergrowth of the holly barberry (barberis 
or mahonia aquifolium), that will be yellow-blossoming 
even before they are pink. White lilies, and the pink, 
crimson-spotted lilium speciosum, might fill the side 
border, with pinks in front, overlapping on to the turf ; 
pansies could similarly edge the evergreen border and 
the bed of gold and silver shrubs, violas or variegated 
rock-cress be round the bed of mixed dwarf roses, the 



334 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

object being to have no soil left visible in this 
garden. 



fr$\ 




Fig. 82. The Turt-edged Front Garden 

The design Fig. 82 owes its uncommon effect to 
the bold curves marked out by the turf strip edgings. 
There are countless ways in which this garden could be 



OUR FRONT GARDENS 335 

charmingly planted : one scheme would be to mass 
blue, yellow, and white perennials and annuals. Here 
are names of some that should recall many others to 
memory : alkanet, forget-me-not, perennial and annual 
larkspurs, hyacinths, knapweed (centaurea montana), 
spiderwort, commelina ccelestis, phacelia campanularia, 
love-in-a-mist, lobelia, nemophila, chionodoxa, scillas, 
Jacob's ladder, lathyrus sativus, sweet peas, pansies, 
kaulfussia, gentian, sage, borage. Sunflowers, nas- 
turtiums, coreopsis, marigolds, Iceland poppies, calceo- 
larias, wallflowers, tulips, polyanthuses, Spanish irises, 
violas, golden rod, creeping Jenny, day-lilies, dahlias, 
chrysanthemums. Ox-eye daisies, marguerites, be- 
gonias, narcissi, crocuses, columbines, snapdragons, 
sweet Williams, geraniums, pinks, rock-cress, Michael- 
mas daisies, double daisies, phloxes, hybrid pyre- 
thrums, asters, stocks, verbenas. 

A beautiful style for this, or for any front garden, 
is the devoting such attention to the seasons that the 
best flowers of each are represented by two species. 
First might come hyacinths and crocuses, then colum- 
bines and late narcissi, followed closely by pansies and 
hybrid pyrethrums, begonias and violas, chrysanthe- 
mums, tall and dwarf, for the late autumn. Again, 
this garden would do well for all roses. If the dwarf 
polyanthas are used in front of dwarf teas and hybrid 
teas, that in their turn stand before vigorous hybrid 
perpetuals, there is no reason for any earth being 
uncovered by branches ; the roses will come right up 
to the turf in beds and borders. That grass, by-the- 
bye, should be planted itself with the lesser bulbs that 
bloom in earliest spring, before the narrow mowing- 
machine or shears will be at work. 



336 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

In the design Fig. 83 a suggestion is made how to 
have an exceedingly simple arrangement that shall yet 
attract notice. The grass plots, divided by a gravel 
diamond, could, of course, be edged by standard 
roses, if the extent of the ground permitted. The arch, 
when well covered by a rampant rambler rose and a 
perpetual bloomer, in unison, would give shade 
sufficient for a rustic seat to be set on the house side of 
it. In the wide border, of three points, next the fence, 
a representative selection of evergreen flowering 
shrubs, then of herbaceous plants, edged by dwarf 
bedding plants, after hyacinths and tulips, would best 
result in nearly constant blossom. In the narrow 
border on the left side of the gate could be ranked tall 
ornaments, such as pillar climbers, stately growers of 
the lily height, or low flowers of rich dark colour, of 
which pansies and red-crimson begonias are examples. 

In some localities, where there is great need of rustic 
charm, or else where the character of the landscape is 
to be repeated, a woodland front garden has merits. 
Some houses are built actually in woodland clearings, 
and then it often seems like the decision of a Goth to 
decree that primroses, turf, young saplings, bluebells, 
ferns, ground ivy, heather, or other native delights are 
to be grubbed up for the sake of trim glass plots and 
symmetrical arrangements of gayer flowers brought 
from abroad. 

The front garden in which all the trees, shrubs, and 
plants own evergreen foliage is a consoling spectacle 
all winter, and gives least labour at any time. Gravel 
is better than turf to separate the beds and borders, 
because more of a contrast with the leafage, which 
should be used to cover all the earth. Mossy saxi- 



OUR FRONT GARDENS 337 

frages ought to be specialised in ; amateur gardeners at 



SR\ 







Fig. 83. An Uncommon Front Garden. 

present know very few of these robust, rapidly increas- 
ing, rosy or white blooming wonders. 



338 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

By the use of only bulbous plants, with mossy 
saxifrages or violas, a splendid floral display can be 
presented during ten out of the twelve months, and 
this is a novelty in which any plant connoisseur can 
feel legitimate pride. Bulbs that must be taken up 
and stored, must, of course, be there, in addition to the 
bulbs of herbaceous plants, that need no lifting. 

When window-boxes are against a house-front the 
gardener should have command over them also, lest 
they be filled with flowers of colours that clash with 
those outside. When the hues are all matched the 
window ornaments add considerably to the front 
garden success. Flowers on verandahs, balconies, and 
roof-tops also can insist on the popular colour note, or 
assist in fair harmonies. A lofty mount of rockery, a 
pedestal of turf supporting a terra- cotta urn full of 
white flowers and silver foliage, a round bed spanned 
by two wire hoops, crossed, and climbed on by nas- 
turtiums, clematises, yellow jasmine, canary creeper, 
or honeysuckle, are suitable centre-pieces for a grass or 
gravel expanse. A terrace walk along a house front, 
edged by roses trained to an espalier fencing of rustic 
wood, can rarely be arranged for, but when it can, and 
steps lead from it to a lower level where another walk 
may cross the width, bordered by crowded phloxes, 
paeonies, and chrysanthemums of dazzling tints, the gar- 
den will rank high indeed. By- the-bye, those three plants, 
of such innumerable shades, and such prodigal yielders, 
are the finest trio to combine anywhere for painting the 
home landscape richly in spring, summer, and autumn. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Only genius can throw its 
brush at a canvas/' 



CHAPTER XXXI 



A SHEAF OF HINTS 



" Through primrose tufts, in that sweet bower, 
The periwinkle trail'd its wreaths ; 
And 'tis my faith that every flower 
Enjoys the air it breathes." 

Wordsworth. 

NO enthusiastic gardener ever thinks that her 
garden is finished, even so far as new orna- 
menting is concerned, and practical culture 
means a task for each day, week, and month, in 
perpetuity. One season's reputation must be eclipsed 
by that of the next season — such is the law of ambition. 
Certain flowers, other than those to which chapters 
have been dedicated here, are fit subjects for hobby 
cultivation. Hybrid pyrethrums, blanket-flowers 
(gaillardias), Michaelmas daisies, pinks, paeonies, are 
suitable species for making different gardens renowned, 
because the casual grower who patronises them slightly 
will never understand the perfection, and the amazing 
variety, to which talented florists have brought them. 
There have been gardens, too, famed for their asters, 
verbenas, stocks, or gazanias. Ivy-leaved geraniums 
require better knowing, the maroons and purples 
especially ; in southern counties they can be grown to 
a great height up walls and trellises, and be left out 
against these all winter, covered by deep cinder mulches. 
The moraine garden is the latest fancy, for the safe 



340 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

rearing and preserving of all the exquisite alpine plants 
that cannot live where soil is damp during the cold 
months. To make a moraine a border may be chosen 
adjoining a south-aspect rockery or old wall. Stones 
should be laid one on another, and cemented, till they 
form a front wall to hold up the soil ; about two feet 
is the right depth. Inside this barrier good drainage is 
essential, so seven inches or so of broken crocks and 
brick rubble has to be put in, then a layer of medium- 
sized pebbles to partly fill the gaps between them and 
prevent water from flowing through too quickly. 
Lastly the growing compost goes in, nearly up to the 
top, and that provides the surprise for the uninitiated. 
It should consist of one part of loam, passed through a 
sieve, half parts each of leaf mould and coarse sand, to 
six parts of stone chippings. 

At first it does seem incredible that any plants can 
desire such stuff, or be able to thrive in it, but the 
correct species do, and will, those mountain denizens 
that like being baked in summer, and subsist under 
deep snows all winter, waiting for the days of melting 
and release. The stone chips may be limestone, 
sandstone, or marble ; masons can usually provide 
them. In size they should vary, but pieces larger than 
a pigeon's egg are too heavy, likely to bruise and break 
tender stems and foliage, and none should be smaller 
than sweet pea seeds. The prettiest appearance is 
gained by using most of the bigger chips beneath, the 
finer for the surface, all but a scattering of good-sized 
morsels. 

Alpines for the moraine garden are mostly sold in 
small pots, and should be turned out fairly dry, then 
planted lightly in a hole scooped out of the chip- 



A SHEAF OF HINTS 341 

compost. Hard pressing in must be avoided, the roots 
should be disposed with the greatest care, not inserted 
in a lump, but spread out, then a delicate watering 
must be repeated every five or six hours, to keep the 
plants fresh until they have gripped their new compost. 
Any noted market supplier of herbaceous plants will 
recommend species for the moraine, but the gardener 
should not be content to buy only those likely to 
succeed in any ordinary rock-garden, or she will miss 
her rare opportunity. Let her consult plant catalogues 
for herself, and order those dainties that most appeal 
to her interest and are notified as delicate, or requiring 
extra sandy, gravelly, or well-drained soil. The en- 
crusted saxifrages, with rosettes of wonderful foliage, 
downy or speckled cushions, giving wee pendant bell- 
flowers, or upright blossoms, in such profusion that the 
silver, blue-grey, or miniature moss tufts are hidden, 
may be rejoiced in without fear of failure ; blue, 
bronze, variegated, and purple stonecrops are winsome ; 
there is one that sends up fluffy pink " claws " each 
autumn (sedum pulchellum), another described as like 
a string of brown pebbles (sedum Stahii), a dove-grey 
mossy species (sedum pruinatum monstrosum), the 
fern-leaved sedum asiaticus, and the cotton-wool 
resembling sedum dasyphyllum glanduliferum. The 
spider's- web houseleek (semper vivum arachnoideum), 
should be bought, with many of its quaint relatives ; 
mountain catchflys (silenes) will form sheets of crimson, 
yellow, pink, or white ; soldanellas are gems, blessed 
with round evergreen leaves and blue-fringed blossoms ; 
ramondias, nierembergias, lewisias, and androsaces 
become joys to those who make their acquaintance. 
A kind of imitation moraine is a useful expedient 



342 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

for furnishing a considerable area of land that is not to 
be thoroughly dug and manured ; but it must be 
ordinarily drained, therefore dry land, nothing in the 
nature of a bog or sticky clay. This is carried out by 
strewing the whole with several inches of beach gravel, 
then planting groups of such robust rockery plants as 
will be glad of the dry mulch that will yet conserve 
moisture about their stems and roots. Of course the 
ground under each group should be hand-forked and 
pulverised, and some soot scatterings, and a few 
spoonfuls of Clay's fertiliser, will then supply enough 
nutriment. Perennial candytufts (iberises), the type 
wallflowers (alpine cheiranthuses), pinks, the larger 
saxifrages, German irises, snapdragons, valerians, all 
the rock-cresses, are examples of herbaceous beauties 
that will accommodate themselves to this environ- 
ment. 

Slopes cannot be so treated, unless most gentle ones, 
on account of the frequency with which the " beach " 
will be washed down to the base and require throwing 
up again, but a wide-gravelled hillside, or series of 
undulations, planted with bold masses of rhododen- 
drons, azaleas, heaths, gorses, brooms, brambles, 
lavender and rosemary bushes, pampas and other 
mighty grasses, the coarser cone-flowers, groundsels, 
Helen flowers, orange ox-eye, single dahlias, chrysan- 
themums, cistuses, hibiscuses, hydrangeas, Michaelmas 
daisies, mulleins, asphodels, tall snapdragons, and tree 
lupins will not fail to win approval. Between the big 
plants can come carpets — or rugs would be the more 
descriptive word — of thrifts, potentillas, thymes, soap- 
worts, St. John's worts, Iceland and Welsh poppies, 
sun roses (helianthemums), barrenworts (epimediums), 




PERFUMED FLOWERS ROUND A SUMMER SHELTER 



A SHEAF OF HINTS 343 

and the cerastiums, which include the familiar snow- 
in-summer. 

A bog garden may not contain any visible water ; 
one is often the most convenient finish to a terraced 
garden, that has a very damp last level. Most of the 
plants recommended for surrounding sunk basins can 
be grown, and the Japanese iris alone, backed by 
willow-herbs and pink arrowhead, would ensure great 
beauty in June and July. 

A new idea is the making of moats, not wide as those 
which girdled castles in days of old, but perhaps a foot 
deep, and two feet across, or double that, should space 
permit. The motive for a moat might be the isolating 
of a summer-house or bower, and a plank bridge, to 
draw up and down, would not be beyond the skill of 
any carpenter to contrive. The banks of the moat 
should be fringed from above by trailing plants, and 
ferns ought to partly line them ; the base, if not ever 
flooded, could contain a wealth of pansies. 

A profound study may be given to perfumed 
flowers and foliage ; their employment close to house 
windows has been already advised, but they will be 
welcome too near seats, pavilions, tennis and croquet 
lawns, bowling greens, smoking-rooms, arbours, and 
summer shelters. 

Outdoor ferneries prove a continual source of 
interest. They should be two-fold, the familiar shady, 
cool, rockery display, and one quite warm and sheltered, 
yet damp, for the satisfying of the needs of countless 
less robust, open-air-loving species. 

Gardens all of one or two colours instruct those who 
build them up, and all who visit them, because, to do 
justice to the hues, the gardener sets to work to trace 



344 EVERY WOMAN'S FLOWER GARDEN 

and obtain every known and suitable blossom. A 
scarlet garden is a grand blaze, yet not by any means 
painfully glaring; a white garden has a fairy-like 
scenic effect, but a gold and orange one is the most 
heart-raising : summer seems to have settled there for 
ever, yet, when she is forced to leave, the mind im- 
mediately becomes more eager for the daffodil, crocus, 
tulip, and wallflower golds of spring. 

It is only the woman with stoves as well as cool 
greenhouses at her command who can revel in tropical 
bedding-out as a hobby ; it is an exacting yet a 
glorious one, and the fame of any success in this line is 
sure to travel over at least three counties. 

There is one way in which many artistic garden- 
makers err — they forget that there must be either 
ready-arranged or discoverable best views in each 
garden, and, for want of thought, omit to frame these 
adequately. Walls may be cut through, gaps a yard 
or two left, and filled up with only wire netting, if a 
common, cornfield, orchard, or bit of parkland stretches 
beyond ; a woodland may often be redeemed from 
dusky dreariness by the cutting of a glade ; a fence 
that obstructs the vision that would otherwise 
encounter a sunset behind a pine belt is a terrible 
enemy ; a shrubbery so dense that moonlight cannot 
make silver ladders anywhere between its thickets is 
itself a disaster, no matter how valuable or flower- 
laden the items of which it is composed. 

The woman floriculturist has been repeatedly urged 
on ; it is now time, at the close of this book, to counsel 
her to spend many peaceful hours free from all tasks a 
but the coming in touch with the soul of her garden, 
for only so will she receive its benediction and learn its 



A SHEAF OF HINTS 345 

wishes. So, too, will she become conscious of how 
proud a custodian of a beautiful garden ought to be. 
Discontent, within limits, is a tribute to the Divine, not 
a sadness ; we may not do all we would, but the wise 
among us grow thankful that we cannot. It is then we 
bow in assent to the dictum of an Eastern sage, " Only 
God Himself and man's aspirations are immortal.' ' 
Heaven is the name of the state in which our wisdom 
will forbid our desiring to be ever satisfied. For to 
have received, or performed, or enjoyed, implies loss, 
while yearning is unfettered hope. 

A flower is a little thing, a multitude of flowers may 
be possessed by the rich or the poor ; but the woman 
who loves flowers, and spreads them abroad, is a worker 
on the side of the angels. 

Gardening Proverb. — " Better a daisy patch with 
peace than a kingdom without love's blossom." 



THE END 



AA 



INDEX 



Abutilon, 129 
Acacia, 287, 103 
Aconites, 108, 210, 272 
African Marigolds, 294 
Agapanthus, 196 
Ageratum, 149 
Alonsoa, 149 
Allspice, 316 

Almond, 103, 184, 247, 270, 315 
Alkanet, 137, 140 
Alum root, 137, 245 
American Currant, 289, 314 
American Cowslip, 251 
Annuals, 12, 20, 37, 149, 150 
Annuals, Sown out, 20, 150 
Annuals, Bedding, 147, 149 
Anthemis, 19, 149 
Arbours, 167, 168 
Arenaria (sandwort), 239, 286 
Arches, 10, 18, 26, 43, 64, 94, 95 
Artemesia, 293 
Artriplex, 292 
Asphodel, 208 
Aspidistra, 251 
Astilbe, 164 
Aster, 149, 174, 180, 272 
Aucuba, 187 
Auriculas, 224, 231, 315 
Avens, 230, 242 
Azaleas, 102, 107, 227, 249, 273, 
316 

Bachelor's Buttons, 137 

Balconies, 338 

Balsams, 292 

Bamboos, 164 

Banks, 10, 290 

Barberry, 39, 128, 167, 184, 207, 

264, 268 
Bartonia, 251 



Barrenwort, 224 

Baskets, 23 

Beans, 167, 

Beech, 288 

Bedding Plants, 18, 37, 149, 156, 

173 to 182 
Bedding Out, 169 to 182, 344 
Beds, 10, 18, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 

88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 

96, 97, 98, 99 
Begonia, 12, 89, 178, 230, 231 
Bellfiower, 132, 138, 187, 222, 

239, 295 
Bergamot, 137, 208 
Bindweed, 129, 166, 288 
Birch, 103, 247, 287, 289 
Birds, 31, 325 
Blackthorn, 286 
Blanket Flower, 137, 149 
Bleeding Heart Flower, 209 
Blood-root, 210 
Bluebell, 39, 187, 210 
Blue-eyed Mary, 222 
Blue Clover, 150 
Blue Gum, 310 
Blue Pea, 151 
Borders, 10, 12, 14 
Borders, Mixed, 36 to 44 
Borders, Herbaceous, 132 to 145 
Borders, Bulb, 193 to 202 
Borders, South Wall, 267 
Box, 316 
Box edging, 316 
Box Thorn, 313 
Brambles, 103, 162, 187, 287 
Bramble Berry, 128 
Bridgesia, 129 
Broom, 41, 102, 104, 106,, 187, 

293, 3" 
Brush (aphis), 24 



348 



INDEX 



Bryony, 288 

Bugbane, 164 

Bugle, 221, 241, 290 

Bulbs, 37, 40, 193 to 202 

Bulbous Plants, 40 

Burning Bush, 149, 173 

Bush Honeysuckle, 102, 105, 311 

Butterfly Flower, 150 

Caffre Flag, 210 

Cajophora, 189 

Calceolaria, 174, 176, 178, 211 

Calliopsis, 290 

Camassias, 202 

Campion, 243, 

Campanula, 239, 288 

Canary Creeper, 130,149,188,293 

Candytuft, 20, 222, 

Cannas (sowing), 147 

Canterbury Bells, 109, 295 

Cape Marigold, 150 

Cardamine, 251 

Carnations, 12, 97, 231, 280 to 

284 
Carnations, Bed of, 173 
Carnations, Perpetual, 280 
Carnations, Clove, 282 
Carnations, Layering, 280 
Carnations, Marguerite, 149, 173 
Carpenteria, 105 
Catchfly, 136, 186 
Cats Ear, 221 
Ceanothus, 167, 102 
Centaurea, 137, 208 
Centranthus, 212, 251 
Cheiranthus, 19 
Chestnut, 289 
Chilian Glory Flower, 130 
Chrysanthemums, 12, 93, 211, 

233, 245, 259, 260, 261, 268 
Chrysanthemum Coronarium, 

149, 251, 294 
Cineraria, 182, 211 
Cinquefoils, 223 
Clarkias, 20, 149, 150, 290 
Clematis, 122, 125, 163, 166 
Clover, 50, 288, 223 
Cobaea, 168 

Collin's Toad Flax, 20, 251, 291 
Columbines, 19, 93, 109, 135, 

150, 210, 236, 251 



Coleus, 175 

Convolvulus, 149, 167, 251, 293 

Cone Flower, 138, 149, 237, 293 

Copses, 288 

Cornflowers, 149, 212, 287, 290 

Cosmos, 147 

Cowslips, 247, 224, 288 

Crabs, 287 

Cranesbill, 137, 186, 222 

Crassulas, 227 

Creeping Jenny, 212 

Crocus, 247, 264, 270, 271, 272 

Crown Imperials, 273 

Cuckoopint, 249, 288 

Cyclamen, 209 

Daffodils, 37, 40, 108, 210, 
211, 236, 247, 273, 290 

Dahlias, 91, 139, 180, 230, 252 
to 261, 295 

Daisy, Turfing, 288 

Daisy Grubber, 22 

Daisy, Double, 108, 186, 187, 
209, 221, 240, 243, 263 

Daphne, 263, 272, 316 

Datura, 227 

Day Flower, 202 

Day Lilies, 208, 251 

Dead Nettle, 222 

Delphinium (Perennial Lark- 
spur), 12, 93, 132, 133, 136, 

237 
Deutzia, 106, 311 
Dianthus, 222 
Dibbler, 22 
Diseases, 319 to 326 
Dogwood, 288, 289 
Dragon's Head, 136, 240 
Dress 24 to 27 
Drummond's Phlox, 149, 178, 

230 

ECHEVERIAS, 227 

Edelweiss, 227 
Edgings, 36, 213 to 224 
Edgings, Plants for, 221 to 224 
Elder, 39, 187, 287, 314 
Elm, 288 
Erysimum, 291 
Escallonia, 129, 167, 289, 310 
Eschscholtzia, 20 



INDEX 



349 



Espaliers, 44 103, 286 
Eucharidium, 291 
Euonymus, 103, 167, 206, 310 
Evening Primrose, 149 
Everlastings, 149 
Everlasting Peas, 164, 294, 312 

Fences, 286, 287 

Ferns, 107, 187, 211, 212, 232, 

251, 288, 289 
Ferneries, 229, 343 
Fields, 290, 292 
Fir, 102, 289 
Fire Thorn, 263, 269, 316 
Fish, 252 
Fish-netting, 166 
Flame Flower, 211 
Flax, 136, 208, 231, 232, 241, 

242, 291 
Fleabane, 135, 137, 239 
Flora's Paint-brush, 231 
Foam Flower, 239 
Foliage Plants, 292 
Forget-me-not, 209, 222, 247, 

290 
Fork, 21 

Foxgloves, 19, 37, 108, 208, 287 
Fritillaries, 210, 231 
Fuchsias, 93, 177, 211, 251, 289, 

Fiont Gardens, 328 to 388 

Gaillardias, 339 

Garden, Why to, 1 

Garden, Character of the, 3 

Gardens : Lonely, 2 ; Small, 2 ; 
Planning, 4 ; Remodelling, 5 ; 
Novelty in, 5, 6 ; Colour in, 
7 ; Laying out, 8, 9, 10, 11 
to 19 ; Mystery in, 10 ; Water 
235, 245, to 252 ; Winter, 
262 to 274 ; Wilderness, 285 
to 295 ; Moraine, 341 ; Slope, 
342 ; Moat, 343 ; Bag, 343 ; 
Original, 344 

Garlic, 196, 210 

Gazanias, 339 

Geissorhiza, 201 

Gentian, 227 

Geraniums, 141, 177, 211, 230, 
3I3» 339 



Gilia, 251 

Glades, 183 to 187, 290, 344 

Gladiolus, 195, 237 

Glastonbury Thorn, 269 

Globe Flower, 137, 208, 251 

Globe Thistle, 106 iJ 

Glory Vine, 129 

Goat's Beard, 138, 208 

Godetias, 149, 231, 294 

Gold Dust, 19, 140, 221 

Golden Ball, 106, 269, 310 

Golden Feather, 149, 174 

Golden Rod, 208, 251 

Gourds, 189 

Gorse, 102, 187, 247, 269, 286, 
287 

Grass : Seed, 45 ; Pampas, 10, 
316 ; Cutting, 23 ; From 
Turves, 45 ; Under Trees, 45, 
204 ; Walks, 53, 103, 288 ; 
Edgings, 53 

Grasses, Ornamental, 231, 251, 

293 
Gravel, 103, 205, 231 ; Pits, 287 
Gromwell, 222 
Groundsel, 137, 149, 208, 251, 

272 
Guelder Roses, 187, 289, 315 

Harebells, 136, 186, 231, 288 
Hawkweed, 138, 287, 290 
Hawthorns, 187, 269, 286, 

289, 316 
Hazel, 288, 317 

Heather, 91, 107, 273, 288, 310 
Hedges, 10, 11, 43, 286, 289 
Helen's Flower, 138 
Hemp, 292 
Hepaticas, 264, 272 
Hoe, 22 

Hooded Violets, 249 
Holly, 108, 287 
Hollyhocks, 12, 38, 185, 149, 

237> 2 94 
Honesty, 19, 108, 212 
Honeysuckle, 127, 167, 104, 191, 

269, 286, 288 
Hops, 147, 162, 249, 288, 293 
Hornbeam, 288 
Houseleeks, 231, 286 
Hyacinths, 12, 37, 195, 196, 197 



350 



INDEX 



Hyacinth Bean, 189 
Hyacinthus Candicans, 196 
Hydrangeas, 105, 311 

Iceland Poppies, 19, 149 

Ice Plant, 149, 175, 177, 180 

Indian Pink, 149 

Inula, 208 

Insecticides, 321 

Insects, 318 to 321 

Insect Traps, 318 

Iresine, 172, 174, 179 

Iris, 109, 208, 247, 272 

Ivy, 103, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 

270, 271, 286, 317 
Ixiolirion, 201 

Jacobean Lily, 197 
Japanese Primrose, 251 
Japanese Quince, 104, 106, 166, 

270 
Jasmine, 1, 122, 127, 129, 273, 

312 
Jerusalem Sage, 105 
Jew's Mallow, 105, 129 

Kalmias, 289 
Knapweed, 137 
Kneeling board, 24, 25 
Knotweeds, 129, 208, 223, 247, 
272 

Labels, 145 

Laburnum, 105, 312 

Lantanas, 181 

Larch, 287 

Larkspurs, 149, 291, 294 

Laurels, 1, 102, 103, 169, 206, 

286, 312 
Laurustinus, 263, 268, 315 
Lavender, 1, 105, 315 
Lawns : 7, 8, 10, 16, 45 to 54, 

84, 205 ; Beds in, 83 to 99 ; 

Care of, 51 ; Renovating, 52 ; 

Making, 47 
Lawn Mowers, 22 ; Shears, 22 ; 

Clippers, 22 
Layia, 151 

Leadwort, 181, 222, 251 
Leopard's-banes, 137, 209, 251 
Leptosiphons, 20 



Lettuces (blue), 251, 289 
Lilac, 1, 102, 105, 207, 289, 314 
Lilies, 12, 18, 39, 107, 108, 199 
Lily-of-the- Valley, 108, 280 to 

284 
Lime, 34, 35, 107, 319 to 396 
Lime tree, 288 
Linaria, 232, 239 
Liverwort, 154 
Lobelia, 149, 178, 231 
London Pride, 103, 186, 212, 

244, 286 
Loosestrife, 208 
Lophospernum, 189 
Love-in-a-mist, 149, 291 
Loves-lies-bleeding, 149 
Lupins, 105, 140, 149, 151 
Lungwort, 223 
Lychnis, 230 

Magnolia, 129 

Maidenhair Vine, 129 

Mallow, 164 

Mallowwort, 149, 150, 211, 251, 

294 
Manna Grass, 222 
Manure : 29 to 33 ; Pit, 164 ; 

For under trees, 206 ; For 

Violets, 279 ; For Lilies-of-tho 

Valley, 283 
Match-me-if-you-can, 170 
Mats (kneeling), 24 
Marigold, 20, 149, 290 
Marguerites, 211 
Maze, 265, 266 
Meadow Rue, 209 
Meadow Saffron, 211 
Meadow Sweets, 210, 249, 293, 

314 
Meconopsis, 19 
Megasea, 271 
Michaelmas Daisies, 37, 140, 

208, 236, 242, 272, 294, 339 
Mignonette, 1, 20, 294 
Mimulus, 153, 182, 208, 251 
Mist Flower (Chalk Plant), 20, 

231, 291 
Mock Orange, 12, 102, 105, 289, 

293. 314 
Monkshood, 109, 208, 237 
Moon Daisy, 39, 208 



INDEX 



35i 



Montbretia, 91, 197, 236 

Moraine, 340 

Moss Pinks, 231 

Mountain Ash, 287 

Mountain Sweets, 105, 106, 128 

Mullein, 137, 164, 208, 288 

Musk, 251 

Myrtle, 1, 16, 251, 313 

Myrobala Plum, 313 

Nasturtium, 20, 150, 167, 176, 

178, 211, 230, 294 
Narcissus, 195, 196 
Nemesias, 149 
Nemophila, 231 
New Jersey Tea Plant, 105 

Oak, 317 
Oleaster, 39 
Orange Ball, 316 
Orchis, 108, 247, 289 
Ox-eye daisy, 136, 138, 211, 251, 
287 

Paeonies, 105, 251, 313, 339 

Palms, 180, 251 

Pansies, 12, 16, 108, 134, 140, 

153, 187, 242, 263, 296 to 305 
Passion-flower, 127, 313 
Paths, 5 9, 10, 12, 14, 140, 288 
Penstemon, 314 
Pergolas, 16, 188 to 192 
Perennials : 39, 30, 41, 133 to 

140, 245 ; Sowing, 150, 152, 

153 ; Evergreen, 274 
Periwinkle, 188, 209, 210, 289 
Petunia, 149 
Pheasant's-eye, 290 
Phloxes, 12, 37, 133, 139, 186, 

208, 236, 239, 245, 317 
Phlox Groups, 43 
Phloxes, Star, 273 
Phloxwort, 291 
Phlomis, 105 
Pillars, 43, 71, 89, 186 
Pimpernels, 289 
Pine, 317 
Pinks, 104, 140, 186, 222, 243, 

273, 3*7, 339 
Pitcher Plant, 251 
Plain tain Lily, 108 



Plant distances, 43 
Poles, 104, 162, 271.. 288, 293 
Polyanthuses, 263 
Pomegranate, 130 
Poplar, 289 

Poppies, 150, 157, 186, 231, 236, 
238, 239, 244, 287, 289, 291, 

294. 313 
Poppy Plume, 208, 251 
Poppy, Welsh, 138, 151, 187, 239 
Potato Vine, 129 
Potentilla (cinquefoil), 239, 288 
Primroses, 187, 210, 224, 231, 

236, 272, 288 
Primula obconica, 231 
Primula involucrati, 273 ; rosea, 

273 ; nivalis, 273 
Primulas, 296 to 308 
Privet, 105, 167, 206, 273, 288, 

312 
Pruning, 78 to 82, 125, 309 to 

317 

Prunus pissardi, 105, 270 
Pyrethrums, 12, 185, 237, 339 

Quince, 289 

Rake, 22 

Ranunculus, 133, 231, 239 

Red-hot Poker, 187, 293 

Reel and line, 22 

Rhododendrons, 91, 107, 251, 
273, 289, 314 

Rhubarb-, 164, 208, 289 

Rock cress, 221, 236, 273 

Rock edgings : 38, 217 ; Banks, 
159 ; Roses, 102, 105 

Rockeries, 225 to 234 ; Cacta- 
ceous plants for, 229 ; Sun- 
scorched, 226 ; Building, 228 ; 
Town Garden, 229 ; Fern, 229 

Roses : China, 89, 268 ; Briar, 
10, 163, 187, Japanese, 164, 
207, 211, 289, 263, 166 ; 
Single, 233, 247, 287 ; Stan- 
dard, 87 

Roses, 1, 10, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 
to 72 ; Climbing, 102, 130, 
168, 187 

Rose Planting, 73, 74, 75 ; Feed- 
ing, 79, 80, 81 



352 



INDEX 



Roseries, 10, 89, 55 to 72 
Rue, 105 

Salpiglossis, 149, 231 

Sandwort, 239 

Saxifrages, 103, 136, 188, 231, 

236, 240, 273, 286 
Scabious (sowing), 147, 289 
Scillas, 273 
Scissors, 22 
Screens, 158 to 165 
Sea Holly, 106, 289, 310 
Seats, 16, 295, 289 
Sea Kale, 164, 289 
Secateurs, 22 
Self heal, 289 
Service Tree, 289 
Seeds, 146 ; in the Greenhouse, 

146 ; in frames, 146 ; in 

boxes, 146 
Seed Compost, 151 
Seedlings, air for, 148 ; water- 
ing, 151 ; pricking out, 156 ; 

transplanting, 116 
Shade, 203 to 212 
Shrubs, 5, 16, 100 to 109, 1641 

263 ; Flowering, 41, 102, 184 ; 

Perennials with, 109 ; Glades 

among, 106 ; Miniature, 210 ; 

on walls, 128 ; for rockeries, 

230 ; Evergreen, 16, 18, 107, 

144. 167 
Shrubberies, 100 to 109 ; under 

trees, 206 
Shrub planting, 107 
Silene, 149, 174, 178 
Snapdragons, 19, 37 109, 149, 

244, 286, 294 
Snow-in-summer, 222 
Snowberry tree, 206, 269 
Snowdrops, 271 
Snowflakes, 210 
Southernwood, 1, 128 
Soap wort, 149 
Solanum jasminsides, 314 
Solomon's Seal, 209, 212 
Spiderwort, 209, 236, 239 
Spray bushes, 207, 289 
Spud, 22 

St. Bruno's Lily, 231 
St. John's Wort, 187, 212, 288 



Star of Bethlehem, 196, 201, 
210 

Sternbergias, 201 

Stocks, 1, 149, 153. 175 ; Bramp- 
ton, 153 

Stonecrops, 223, 231, 265, 286 

Sundial, 264 

Sunflowers, 20, 134, 140, 149, 
185, 251, 293, 294 

Sun Roses, 136, 231, 222 

Sumach, 105 

Swan River Daisy, 149 

Sweet Alyssum, 251 

Sweet Bay, 287 

Sweet Peas, 41, 83, 93, no to 
120 ; Sowing, 147 ; Glades 
of, 187 

Sweet Rocket, 108 

Sweet Sultans, 294 

Sweet Williams, 89, 109, 152, 
212, 231, 245 

Sycamore, 289 

Tamarisk, 106, 289 

Thistles, 287 

Thrift, 221, 286 

Thuya, 103, 315 

Thyme, 223 

Tiger Flower, 197, 227 

Tobacco Plants, 1, 149, 211, 251, 

294 
Tools, 21 to 27 
Traveller's Joy, 211, 247, 268, 

288 
Trees, 103, 204, 247, 287, 288, 

289 
Trellis-work, 160 
Trenching, 32 
Tropaeolum, 166, 189 
Trowel, 22 
Tufted Burr, 221 
Turtle-head, 136 
Tulips, 37, 108, 195, 196, 210, 

230, 236, 273 ; Butterfly, 197 

Urns, 16 

Vases, 265 

Verandah, 338 

Verbenas, 230 ; sowing, 147 

Verbena, Lemon, 315 



INDEX 



353 



Veronicas, 102, 105, 137, 223, 

263 268, 274, 289 
Violas, 89, 97, 139, 149, 176, 

177, 186, 231, 236, 241, 243, 

297 
Viola cornuta, 174, 230, 263 
Violettas, 300 
Violets, 1, 273, 275 to 284 ; in 

Frames, 279 
Violets, Dog's Tooth, 210 
Violet cress, 251 
Viscarias, 231 
Virginian Creeper, 103, 121, 125, 

162, 268 
Virginian Stock, 251 

Wallflowers, 19, 37, 153, 273, 
286 

Walls, 121 to 131, 286, 287, 344 

Water, 16 ; Can, 22 ; Flag, 195 ; 
Garden, 235 ; garden peren- 
nials, 245 ; basins, 245 ; lilies, 
247 ; weed, 249 

Weed-killer, 204 

Wilderness, 12, 285 to 295 



Wild Strawberries, 249, 288 
Wild Plum, 289 
Wild Cherry, 287 
Willows, 187, 286 
Willow herb, 208, 249 
Window Boxes, 130, 338 
Windflower, Japanese, 185 ; 

Wood, 108, 187, 210 ; Scarlet, 

136, 230, 271 
Winter Garden, 263 to 274 ; 

Heliotrope, 271 
Winter green, 223 
Winter sweet, 269 
Wire-netting, 165, 286, 287, 345 
Wistaria, 122, 166, 315 
Wood-lilies, 210 
Woodruff, 108, 188, 209, 236, 

289 
Wood Sorrell, 149, 247, 288 

Yarrow, 137, 139, 221 
Yew, 315 
Yucca, 315 

Zinnias, 149, 230 



BB 



